The second installment of The American Lawyer’s two-part series by Ross Todd, “No Benches, No Depth Charts: How Wilkinson Stekloff Set Out to Grow Trial Lawyers and Become a Litigation Institution,” further explores how Wilkinson Stekloff’s next generation of Partners is helping the nation’s premier trial boutique leave an enduring mark on the legal community. The article highlights the experiences of Partners Kosta Stojilkovic and Moira Penza, whose paths to the firm exemplify the unmatched trial opportunities central to the firm’s mission, and illustrate the close-knit culture that sustains teams during the pressure-filled moments when stakes are the highest—both hallmarks of Wilkinson Stekloff’s first decade.
Kosta, who joined the firm within its first year, recalled that his very first day involved accompanying Founding Partner Beth Wilkinson to pitch Facebook for trial work on a significant trade secrets case. After landing that matter with Kosta as second chair, Beth next recommended him as first-chair trial counsel to the NCAA for a high-profile defamation dispute. Kosta not only got the job, but proceeded to win a defense verdict from a Los Angeles jury. “If I went somewhere bigger, I’d be somewhere on the depth chart, having to kind of claw my way to those opportunities,” Kosta said. “I felt like if I came here, I would get the chance. I may succeed. I may not, but it wouldn’t be for being left on the bench somewhere.”
That opportunity comes with intense demands, but to Kosta it has always been worth the tradeoff. “Everyone knows what I do. We all have visibility. To me, I just get a lot out of that.”
Moira described her first experience working with Beth, being “cross-examined” on a memo she drafted as a first-year associate when they practiced together at Paul Weiss, noting that Beth “was very interested in what I, even at that stage in my career, was bringing to the case and my insights. . . . I guess I did well enough, because I am here today.” That interest continued when Moira moved to the E.D.N.Y. U.S. Attorney’s Office and built a distinguished career as a federal prosecutor.
Beth shared advice over coffee, engraining the philosophy of building your case by starting at the end. “Backwards planning is not just our motto. It really is the way we operate: that kind of laser focus on ‘What do I need the jury to understand at the end of the day to win my case?’ is something that we employ in every one of our cases, and I was using when I was at the government.” A true testament to the firm’s mantra of building the next generation of trial lawyers, Moira rejoined Beth in 2019, after her groundbreaking RICO prosecution of the leader of the NXIVM sex-cult, ready to pay forward her lessons learned to the firm’s more junior lawyers seeking the same mentorship she had received.
The article also explored a change in recent years of clients bringing the firm in at the outset of cases, rather than on the eve of trial. Kosta and Moira agreed that the shift benefits everyone—the firm can employ its narrative-driven defense approach earlier in discovery to hone trial themes, and the client reaps the rewards of the firm’s fixed-fee model which allows a broader team deeper involvement on the case from the beginning.
Looking ahead, both partners see the firm’s boutique model as a source of lasting strength that will continue to carry the firm’s “institutional reputation” among its clients to the legal community at large. “I think a boutique can be a common enterprise in a way that’s not true of a large law firm,” Kosta said. Moira agreed: “We love doing what we do, and I think that goes a long way for the success of our firm and the success that our clients see when we represent them.”