NANCY ABELL
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker

It was her most memorable moment as a lawyer: interrupting the winning streak of a plaintiffs’ champion. Nancy Abell, who in 2001 went head-to-head with titan Willie Gary in a $5 billion racial discrimination lawsuit, has spent the past decade taking on legal hotshots including Gary, the late Johnnie Cochran and class action titan Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.