Richards Layton’s Doneene Damon Named to Forbes America’s Top Lawyers List
September 16, 2026
Firm News| Corporate Trust & Agency Services| Legal Opinions| Structured Finance
WILMINGTON, Delaware (September 16, 2026) — Richards, Layton & Finger is proud to announce that Doneene Damon has been named to the Forbes 2026 America’s Top Lawyers list. The annual list recognizes lawyers across a range of practice areas and specializations who have distinguished themselves through notable deals and transactions, trial work, counsel, and the respect of colleagues, arbiters, and clients.
Chair of Richards Layton’s Corporate Trust and Agency Services Group, Doneene focuses her practice on the use of Delaware and New York trusts in a wide range of commercial transactions. She also represents banks and trust companies in connection with their trust and agency services under Delaware and New York law. Her work has earned national recognition from Forbes and Chambers USA. Earlier this year, she was named to the inaugural Forbes America’s Top Women Lawyers list. Chambers USA also ranked her nationally in Capital Markets: Securitization: Trustee Counsel, making her one of just 11 attorneys nationwide to receive that distinction in 2026.
“Doneene’s recognition on Forbes’ America’s Top Lawyers list reflects the exceptional legal counsel she provides to clients and the esteem in which she is held among her peers,” said Paul Heath, Richards Layton president. “As a nationally recognized authority in trust and structured-finance law, she has deep technical knowledge, sound judgment, and a practical approach that make her an invaluable adviser on complex transactions. We are proud to congratulate her on this well-deserved honor.”
Beyond her legal practice Doneene has expanded opportunity in Delaware by developing educational support programs for students from middle school through law school, including tutoring partnerships with two area middle schools. She also brought Richards Layton into the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity’s Success in Law School Mentoring Program, which provides guidance and support to students during their first year of law school and beyond. Within the firm, she has launched and continues to oversee initiatives that provide professional development programming, give attorneys direct access to firm leadership on issues that affect their careers, and enhance the professional lives of the firm’s lawyers.
A past president of Richards Layton, Doneene is the first person of color to become a partner at a major Delaware law firm, the first person of color to be elected president of a major Delaware law firm, and the first woman to serve as president of Richards Layton. She serves as chair of the Structured Finance Association’s Board of Directors, serves on the Board of Directors for one public company and two private companies, serves on the Board of Directors for Delaware Business Roundtable, Cameron Kravitt Foundation, and First State FinTech Lab, and Temple University Beasley School of Law and is a member of the American Law Institute and the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers.
About Richards, Layton & Finger
Defining Delaware law since 1899, Richards, Layton & Finger helps sophisticated clients navigate complex issues and the intricacies of Delaware law. We advise global companies, business partnerships, leading financial institutions, local businesses, and individuals across a wide range of practices, including corporate law, alternative entities, commercial law, bankruptcy and corporate restructuring, intellectual property, tax, trusts and estates, commercial real estate, and litigation.