Awards and Rankings
March 28, 2024

Sabrina Rose-Smith and William Jay Named to Forbes’ List of America’s Top 200 Lawyers

Goodwin partners Sabrina Rose-Smith and Willy Jay have been named to Forbes’ list of America’s Top 200 Lawyers for 2024. The inaugural list highlights practitioners across the country who have broken barriers to emerge as leaders in their fields, and have been involved in the most consequential cases, deals or legal trends over recent years. Each attorney was selected through a multi-stage process of researching and evaluating thousands of candidates, conducted by an editorial team with broad experience in law practice and the legal marketplace.

Rose-Smith is a partner in Goodwin’s Financial Industry Litigation and Consumer Financial Services Litigation practices. Her nationwide practice includes both defending financial institutions against consumer class actions and government enforcement actions, and providing regulatory compliance and litigation risk counseling to banks, credit card issuers, mortgage lenders and specialty and small-dollar fintech companies. She is also a member of Goodwin’s ESG & Impact practice, and focuses on fair and responsible lending/banking, financial inclusion, and Community Reinvestment Act risks and obligations. Rose-Smith is top-ranked by Chambers USA for her expertise in Consumer Finance Enforcement and Investigations, and has been selected for inclusion in The Legal 500 US.

Rose-Smith also serves on the Board of Directors of Black Women in Asset Management, the Board of Trustees for Hollins University, and as the Mason District Commissioner on the Fairfax County, VA Commission for Women. She is also a fellow for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD).

Jay is Co-Chair of Goodwin’s Complex Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice and a partner in the firm’s Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation practice, which he previously led for ten years. He uses his deep experience litigating before the U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals, including more than 75 oral arguments, to help clients formulate winning appellate strategy. A former Assistant to the Solicitor General and Supreme Court clerk, Jay has argued 17 cases before the Supreme Court, briefed more than 50 Supreme Court cases on the merits, and briefed more than 150 cases at the certiorari stage. In recent years, he argued five of the most significant intellectual property cases in the Court, involving patent, copyright, and trademark law. Jay has also handled cases in every federal court of appeals.

Jay has been recognized by Chambers USA each year since 2015 for his work in Appellate Law, and in Band 1 of the inaugural rankings for Intellectual Property: Appellate in 2023. Benchmark Litigation recognized him as a 2021-2023 Litigation Star in Washington, DC for his work in Appellate, and previously honored him as Appellate Lawyer of the Year in 2020. Jay has also been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America Best Lawyers, The IAM Patent 1000, and The Legal 500.