High-profile litigator Joan Lukey wasn’t ready to leave the courtroom behind when she approached Ropes & Gray’s mandatory retirement at age 65 last year. So she took her practice to the smaller Choate, Hall & Stewart, where she heads the complex trial and appellate litigation group. Lukey, who represents plaintiffs and defendants, is the first woman to be elected president of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Lukey scored a $51 million verdict on behalf of crime novelist Patricia Cornwell in 2013, and she is gearing up for a retrial that was caused by a problem with the judge’s jury instructions.
Correction: An earlier version of this profile misreported that Joan Lukey is the only woman to serve as the president of the American College of Trial Lawyers. She is the first woman to serve in that position.
