Donna L. Wilson

Litigation

Los Angeles

Donna L. Wilson, the CEO and managing partner of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, likes to highlight the innovation she and her colleagues brought to the firm since she took the helm in 2019.

For starters, she has continued to transform the traditional law firm model into Manatt's evolved prototype of a professional services hybrid that blends attorney services with consulting professionals in health care, housing and real estate, plus government relations, digital technology and artificial intelligence.

"From the outset, I was fortunate enough to inherit a firm with California's DNA as a bellwether of every trend and seismic change," Wilson said. "We made a firm emblematic of that, with more than 300 lawyers and 150 true consultants, and I don't mean e-discovery specialists; I mean folks who compete against the largest consulting companies in the business."

"We're not a compliance shop. We have executive-level advisors who know that very rarely does a client confront a problem that is purely legal or purely business."

Underlining Manatt's unique nature is Wilson's own status as one of the few -- if not the only -- LGBTQIA+ women leading an Am Law 200 firm. She and her wife Linda D. Kornfeld, a Blank Rome LLP practice group leader, are a Los Angeles power couple who display the kind of female clout the law needs more of, they believe.

Wilson grew up in New Jersey, the first in her family to go to college. "I came out in college, where I was a Russian major hoping to go into the Foreign Service. But in those days, you could not get a security clearance if you were gay. I had to choose, so I chose to live my life the way I wanted to live it, and that meant giving up that dream. I thought, 'No one would mess with me again -- I'm going to become a lawyer.' That and my blue-collar background have driven me ever since, and it is a testament to my partners that they elected me to lead this firm."

A belief in diversity and the hiring of first-generation talent led to Manatt's inclusion on the Human Rights Campaign's 2023 Corporate Equality Index and earned it the Women in Law Empowerment Forum's Gold Standard Certification for the tenth time.

Over the past year, Wilson has brought leading figures aboard, including former Southern District U.S. Attorney Randy S. Grossman to open a new San Diego office. She also recruited Los Angeles City Controller Wendy J. Greuel as a government and regulatory consultant. A third new hire was attorney Axel Bernabe, a former New York State cannabis management policymaker, to expand Manatt's national cannabis practice.

"Our hybrid model works, and I want to continue to bring it to all the industries we focus on," Wilson said. "We want legal talent that thinks like strategic advisors, and advisors who appreciate the legal perspective. That's the future."

-- John Roemer