Sonya D. Winner

Winner has done it all over three decades of experience.

From patent to employment to antitrust law, the chair of the class action litigation practice group at Covington & Burling LLP routinely handles high-stakes cases for clients across all industries, including Wells Fargo Bank and the National Football League.

“I think I’m becoming increasingly unusual in that I’m not specialized,” she said.

Winner brings considerable insight from working on various issues in dozens of consequential cases.

The veteran attorney said she is not limited solely to pretrial, trial or appellate work, although she has handled a number of appeals and has litigated several cases in the 9th Circuit. Her versatility is an advantage, she said.

“When dealing with a discovery issue, I know how that will affect the trial,” she said. “I’m thinking ‘Could this be an issue on appeal one day?’”

Winner has long represented Wells Fargo Bank in multiple class actions concerning overdraft fees on bank deposit accounts. The district court held three times that the bank had waived its right to compel arbitration, but Winner scored a momentous victory in the 11th Circuit in May when the court ruled that Wells Fargo could exercise its arbitration rights. Gutierrez v. Wells Fargo Bank, 16-16820 (11 th Cir., filed May 10, 2018).

The McKesson Corp. also hired the nine-time “Top Women’s Lawyers” award winner to defend it in the massive opioid litigation consolidated in Ohio. She and the rest of the team have been heavily involved in expert witness discovery issues as the first test case approaches in October. In re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation, 17-MD2804 (N.D. Ohio, filed Dec. 12, 2017).

Winner said she was pleasantly surprised to see that a lot of women got the opportunity to be involved in this case. She is too familiar with getting on joint defense calls with two dozen other lawyers only to find that she is the only woman in the discussion,” she continued.

“The gender diversity of the profession is finally starting to seep up into the senior ranks,” she said.

Women are seizing leadership roles in critical depositions and arguing key motions, Winner said. The full array of talent and perspectives are readily noticeable observing the back-and-forth.

“The lawyers feel more comfortable working together, and there’s not this sense of a club and those outside the club,” she said. “It’s more of a seamless collaborative arrangement.”

— Winston Cho