WASHINGTON—Forbes has named Covington partners Catherine Dargan, David Fagan, Douglas Gibson, Stacey Grigsby, Phyllis Jones, Nancy Kestenbaum, Aaron Lewis, Kevin Poloncarz, and Neema Sahni to its list of “America’s Top Lawyers.” Forbes identified the leading dealmakers, litigators, advisers and strategists—at firms of all sizes—who stand apart in an extraordinarily competitive field. Honorees were selected through a rigorous, multi-stage process—evaluating, scoring and internally debating elite candidates identified through nominations, desk research, peer recommendations and editorial review.
Catherine Dargan 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.
David Fagan is a co-leader of Covington's National Security Practice and co-chair of the firm's CFIUS Practice. For more than two decades, David has advised clients on some of the most sensitive and complex cross-border investment and national security matters, including reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). He has successfully secured three of the four Presidential approvals in the history of CFIUS, obtained the only Presidential order protecting a client against a proposed hostile takeover, and negotiated the only "golden share" arrangement the U.S. government has taken in a U.S. company. David also represents clients in CFIUS enforcement matters and advises leading multinational companies on emerging national security issues, including outbound investment restrictions, ICTS regulations, and the evolving U.S.-China competitive landscape. Chambers USA and Chambers Global recognize David for his leading CFIUS expertise; The American Lawyer has named him Dealmaker of the Year three times; Forbes has recognized him as one of America's Top Lawyers; and Law360 has named him an International Trade MVP three times.
Doug Gibson is Chair of Covington’s Management Committee and is responsible for the overall direction of Covington’s strategy and operations. In addition to his leadership and management roles, Doug has spent his career representing the firm’s sports clients on transactional matters, including Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the PGA of America, the United States Tennis Association, the UFC, and the Chicago Cubs. He also has extensive experience in the consumer products industry, representing clients such as Bacardi Ltd.
Stacey Grigsby, a former Deputy Counsel to President Biden, 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. Earlier in her career, Stacey served for eight years at the U.S. Department of Justice, including as Counsel to the Associate Attorney General. This is Stacey’s second year on Forbes’ America’s Top Lawyers list and she was previously recognized in Forbes' America's Top Women Lawyers and America's Best-In-State Lawyers lists.
Phyllis Jones serves as co-chair of Covington’s Product Liability and Mass Torts Practice and has a diverse and extensive litigation practice. A highly accomplished trial attorney, she frequently serves as lead counsel in high-profile complex mass torts involving thousands of claims and significant liability risks, representing clients in state and federal courts, as well as before arbitral panels and regulatory bodies. Phyllis is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the American Law Institute, and has been recognized multiple times as a “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer. She has been recognized in Variety’s Legal Impact Report, as a Law360 Product Liability MVP, a Benchmark Litigation Product Liability Litigator of the Year, and is ranked Band 1 by Chambers and Partners in the Product Liability & Mass Torts category.
Nancy Kestenbaum 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.
Aaron Lewis co-chairs Covington's White Collar Defense and Investigations practice and represents businesses, boards of directors, and individuals in sensitive, high-stakes government investigations, internal investigations, and regulatory enforcement matters. Widely recognized for his work at the intersection of enforcement, compliance, and national security, Aaron has advised clients facing allegations under the False Claims Act and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, as well as matters involving public corruption, export controls, obstruction of justice, and espionage. Before returning to Covington in 2015, Aaron served for six years in the U.S. Department of Justice, first as Counsel to Attorney General Eric Holder and later as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, where he investigated and prosecuted national security, export control, trade secrets, and fraud matters. An experienced trial and appellate lawyer, he has tried cases to verdict and argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Aaron is ranked by Chambers USA for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations and has been recognized by Forbes as a Best-in-State Lawyer, the Daily Journal as a Top White Collar Lawyer, and the Los Angeles Business Journal among Los Angeles' Top 100 Lawyers.
Kevin Poloncarz co-chairs Covington's Environmental and Energy Practice Group, Energy Industry Group, and Sustainability Practice, and is widely recognized as one of the nation's leading climate change and environmental attorneys. He advises electric utilities, financial institutions, investors, and companies on complex policy, litigation, and transactional matters involving climate and energy transition issues, including emissions-reduction strategies, carbon markets, carbon dioxide removal technologies, carbon capture, utilization and storage, and low-carbon fuels. Kevin is ranked by Chambers USA among the nation's leading climate change lawyers and California's leading environmental attorneys, and by Chambers Global among the world's top climate change practitioners. He also convenes Covington's Clean Energy Group, which includes many of the nation's largest public- and investor-owned utilities and independent power generators and focuses on environmental policy developments affecting the power sector. Kevin has been recognized by Forbes as one of America's Top Lawyers, named a Law360 Environmental MVP, and selected as an Energy & Environmental Trailblazer by the National Law Journal.
Neema Sahni serves as co-chair of Covington’s Commercial Litigation and Entertainment & Media practices, as well as co-chair of the firm’s Music Industry Initiative and vice-chair of the Sports Industry Group. Drawing upon her experience at the firm and her prior experience in-house at The Walt Disney Company, she litigates complex disputes across the sports, media, technology, and entertainment industries and serves as trusted counsel for some of the industry’s biggest names. She has handled an array of complex commercial matters, ranging from royalty disputes to copyright and trademark infringement, defamation, consumer class actions, and licensing and distribution-related litigation. Alongside an active litigation docket, she maintains a robust counseling and advisory practice, assisting sports teams and leagues, television networks, music and tech companies, and film studios to assess and mitigate their litigation risk in the context of high-stakes business transactions. Neema has been recognized in Variety’s Legal Impact Report six times, as one of The Hollywood Reporter’s Power Lawyers, and as one of Billboard’s Top Music Lawyers six times. She has also been named a finalist for The Recorder’s Entertainment Lawyer of the Year award three times, one of California’s Top Women Lawyers by the Daily Journal, and is ranked by Chambers and Partners in the Media & Entertainment: Litigation category.
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