Joanna Wright

A member of Boies Schiller Flexner’s Executive Committee, Joanna is a dynamic trial lawyer with an established track record of forging creative solutions to seemingly impossible problems. Joanna represents plaintiffs and defendants in all stages of litigation. Her widespread experience includes complex civil litigation, constitutional litigation, securities fraud, corporate governance, plaintiffs’ side class actions, antitrust, and white collar defense. From pre-complaint internal investigations to longshot appeals, Joanna has handled all stages of litigation efficiently and successfully. In addition to her courtroom wins, clients value her incisive thinking and ability to distill complicated issues to advance business goals.

A forceful advocate for her clients, Joanna has first- or second-chaired over ten trials and arbitrations, including in federal and state court, for both class plaintiffs and corporate defendants. She also has significant appellate experience in federal and state courts, including in the United States Supreme Court.

The depth of Joanna’s success has been recognized by numerous publications, including The American Lawyer, which selected her as a Young Lawyer of the Year in 2021; Benchmark, which selected her as a Future Star; and Lawdragon, where she was named one of the 500 Leading Litigators in America.

A generalist litigator, Joanna specializes in high-stakes litigation and crisis management, including crafting communications strategies to drive public consensus and impact stakeholders. Joanna, and her work, have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, the Associated Press, Reuters, The Hill, Buzzfeed, and numerous other outlets.

In addition to the Executive Committee, Joanna also serves on the firm’s Diversity Council and as the New York City hiring partner. She also devotes significant time to pro bono matters, including high-impact constitutional class actions. Most recently, she won the first ruling in the nation preserving women’s access to healthcare and blocking the implementation of a state abortion ban after the Supreme Court’s decision reversing Roe v. Wade.

Joanna’s recent experience includes:

• Handling high-impact constitutional litigation in Louisiana following the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; just 72 hours after Dobbs, Joanna won the first ruling in the nation to block the implementation of a state’s unconstitutionally vague “trigger bans;" she then secured a preliminary injunction enjoining the laws and is now proceeding with the underlying lawsuit challenging the laws
• Defending Jefferies in disputes involving tortious interference claims asserted by another investment bank concerning employment relationships of the respective firms’ investment bankers
• Defending Tesla in a spate of litigations and arbitrations involving the Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Defending a public company in major shareholder litigation and proxy contest
• Conducting an internal investigation into independent directors on the board of a public company and bringing securities fraud claims against the independent directors
• Suing Google and YouTube for copyright infringement on behalf of a putative class seeking billions in damages
• Representing Andrew Yang and the Data Dividend Project to advocate for consumers’ property rights in their personal data
• Representing a private equity real estate fund in an eight-figure dispute with the Department of the Interior
• Defending a major luxury resort in an environmental CERCLA inquiry
• Defending Uber’s CEO in a novel antitrust class action lawsuit
• Suing GM for product liability claims that resulted in favorable jury findings at trial
• Representing over 500 women Olympians and professional and collegiate athletes, including Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird, in a first-of-its-kind Supreme Court amicus brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, supporting women’s right and access to abortion healthcare
• Representing the former CEO of a major insurance company in a breach-of-contract dispute that settled favorably three days before trial
• Representing one of the co-founders of AriZona Iced Tea in a judicial buyout proceeding
• Representing an international airline’s minority shareholder in a potentially hostile takeover
• Defending a major New York restaurateur in a trademark and licensing dispute
• Representing a hedge fund in bringing fraud claims and securing remedies
• Defending an international bank in residential mortgage-backed securities litigation
• Representing women and children trafficked on Backpage in ongoing litigation
• Suing the federal government for a Fifth Amendment taking based on the federal bailout of AIG, resulting in liability findings in the Court of Federal Claims
• Representing a sexual assault survivor in a civil lawsuit that settled favorably at jury selection
• Representing an Ecuadorean teenager in asylum proceedings
• Drafting a Supreme Court amicus in a death penalty case
• Drafting a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court concerning collateral consequences of criminal convictions

Applying Miranda's Public Safety Exception to Dzokhar Tsarnaev, Restricting Criminal Procedure Rights by Expanding Judicial Exceptions, 113 Colum. L. Rev. Sidebar 136 (2013)

Mirandizing Terrorists? An Empirical Analysis of the Public Safety Exception, 111 Colum. L. Rev. 1296 (2011)