WASHINGTON/NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES— Forbes has named Covington partners Catherine Dargan, Stacey Grigsby, Nancy Kestenbaum, and Ashley Simonsen to its inaugural America's Top Women Lawyers list, a recognition of 200 of the nation's most accomplished women attorneys who have built elite reputations through their leadership, client impact, professional achievements, and contributions to the legal profession. Honorees were selected through a rigorous, multi-step evaluation process and rated on factors including notable litigation and transactions, leadership, client impact, firm and community involvement, and recognition within the broader legal industry.
Catherine leads Covington's Corporate practice and co-chairs the firm's Mergers & Acquisitions practice. For more than 25 years, she has advised public and private companies, boards of directors, and special committees on their most significant strategic transactions. Her practice focuses on complex domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnering arrangements, and corporate governance matters, ranging from the sale of emerging venture-backed companies to multi-billion dollar acquisitions. Catherine regularly represents clients across a wide range of industries, including life sciences, defense and government contracting, consumer products, technology and gaming, media, education, and equipment and manufacturing. She is consistently recognized as a leading M&A lawyer, having been named by Forbes as one of the 50 Top M&A Lawyers in America, by The American Lawyer as a Corporate Dealmaker of the Year in both 2026 and 2022, by Law360 as a Life Sciences MVP, and ranked by Chambers USA in Corporate/M&A and Private Equity for more than a decade.
A former Deputy Counsel to President Biden, Stacey combines high-level government experience with an understanding of corporate challenges to represent clients in significant litigation and sensitive investigations. As co-chair of Covington's Government Litigation practice, she represents clients across numerous industries in a range of federal and state government-facing litigation proceedings. In the White House Counsel's Office, Stacey advised the President and senior White House officials on a range of civil rights issues and led interagency consideration of legal issues at the center of high-profile litigation, legislation, and regulation. She is a nationally recognized litigator who has presented ten oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals and has deep experience in matters involving government contracts, bid protests, takings, and investigations of alleged misconduct and fraud. Earlier in her career, Stacey served for eight years at the U.S. Department of Justice, including as Counsel to the Associate Attorney General. Stacey has previously been named to Forbes' America's Top Lawyers and America's Best-In-State Lawyers lists.
Nancy co-chairs Covington's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice and is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities in the field. A former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, she advises companies, boards of directors, and individuals in high-stakes criminal and civil government investigations by the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal, state, and local regulators. Nancy also plays a key role in the firm's Institutional Culture and Social Responsibility practice, where she leads complex internal investigations on workplace conduct and governance issues for companies, schools, and other non-profit organizations. Chambers USA has ranked her in Band 1 in New York for White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations, and she has been ranked for over a decade. She also serves as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, where she teaches a course on Internal Investigations. Nancy has previously been named to Forbes' America's Top Lawyers list and multiple times as a Law360 White Collar MVP.
A partner in Covington’s Los Angeles office, Ashley focuses on defending complex class actions and mass torts in state and federal courts nationwide. A frequent advocate in the Northern District of California and Los Angeles Superior Court, she represents clients across the technology, financial services, and consumer products sectors through all stages of litigation, including trial. Ashley has a strong track record of success on early dispositive motions, as well as at the class certification and summary judgment stages. She has been appointed to leadership roles in both federal multidistrict litigation (MDL) and California Judicial Council Coordinated Proceedings (JCCPs). Her practice spans a broad range of high-stakes matters, including advertising, antitrust, consumer protection, and product liability disputes. She has received numerous recognitions for her work, including three Law360 MVP awards (Class Actions, Technology, and Banking) and inclusion in the Daily Journal’s lists of Leading Commercial Litigators, Top 100 Lawyers, and Top Women Lawyers in California. She has also been featured in Variety’s Legal Impact Report and named to Forbes’ America’s Top Lawyers list.
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