Richards Layton’s Doneene Damon Named to Forbes America’s Top Women Lawyers
June 3, 2026
Firm News| Corporate Trust & Agency Services| Legal Opinions| Structured Finance
WILMINGTON, Delaware (June 3, 2026) – Richards, Layton & Finger is proud to announce that Doneene Damon has been named to the inaugural Forbes America’s Top Women Lawyers list. She is the only Delaware attorney honored with this recognition. The list honors women lawyers who are considered go-to counsel by clients and colleagues, are leaders and trusted advisors, and are trailblazers who have paved new paths or broken new ground. Forbes recognizes honorees for excellence in advocacy, accomplishments, thought leadership, community involvement, and client success.
Doneene chairs Richards Layton’s Corporate Trust and Agency Services Group and 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.
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 & Finger. She also serves as chair of the Structured Finance Association’s Board of Directors and has held leadership positions in the American Bar Association and the Delaware State Bar Association. She serves on the Board of Trustees of St. Joseph’s University and the Board of Visitors for Temple Law School, as well as on the boards of two private corporations and one public company. According to Chambers USA, “When Doneene speaks, everyone listens.”
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.
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.