Sierra Elizabeth 

Sierra Elizabeth joined Kirkland & Ellis LLP as a summer associate in 2007 while still at Duke University School of Law; she graduated cum laude in 2009. She made partner in 2015 and specializes in products liability and trademark matters.

She serves as co-chair of the firm’s racial and ethnic diversity subcommittee and is the Black Affinity Group coordinator in the Los Angeles office.

And she found time in 2018 to found her own company, SuitKits by Sierra E., an online shopping service that allowed women to custom design their own business attire.

“It taught me much more than anything I learned in a classroom. It was a crash course in people management, accounting, you name it,” Elizabeth said. Though currently mothballed, people keep asking for her to get it back online, she added.

Meanwhile, she’s busy. Elizabeth and the Kirkland team successfully represented Constellation Brands in a trademark and breach of contract case brought by a rival over claims that her client’s Corona Hard Seltzer and Modelo Ranch Water products fell outside the scope of its license they are not “beer” as defined in the relevant contract documents.

“It was a real challenge to convince a jury that hard seltzer is beer, but we did it,” she said. Cerveceria Modelo de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. v. CB Brand Strategies, LLC, et al., 1:21-cv-07316 (S.D. N.Y., filed Aug. 31, 2021).

On March 15, the federal jury voted in favor of Constellation on all counts; in April, the court denied the plaintiff’s motions for judgment as a matter of law or a new trial.

“We had to be super-creative as a team because we were swimming against the tide. We had to dismantle the preconception and bias that beer can be only one thing,” Elizabeth said. It was the only case she knows of in which alcoholic beverages were actually poured in the courtroom — to let jurors visualize, not drink.

There was also an uphill push against U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan’s expressed view that the plaintiff “had the better of the argument.” The judge excluded Elizabeth’s affirmative experts and other evidence favorable to Constellation’s position. Elizabeth and the team persisted. On the day before jury deliberations, the judge said, “Lawyers are supposed to fight hard for your clients, and you sure do. That is impressive.”

The jury saw it Elizabeth’s way after only an hour. “The court didn’t make it any easier, but in the end, we may have convinced him too,” she said. “We showed our client had negotiated the right to sell many things as consumer profiles change.”

–John Roemer