Litigation is about perception. How will a jury perceive your client? Which presentation styles will resonate with each judge? What does your client need to feel supported and understood? What is being said, and, just as importantly, what is left unsaid, and why?
JoAnna Adkisson combines analytical rigor with intuition and strategic awareness to shape how cases are perceived and decided. Drawing on her earlier career in international development and human rights, she brings a deep understanding of people and context to her litigation practice. That experience sharpened her ability to listen across cultures, read subtle cues, and respond with empathy—skills that now inform how she engages with judges, juries, clients, and opposing counsel alike. By anticipating shifts in tone, focus, and motivation, she crafts litigation strategies that align legal precision with persuasive impact, allowing her clients’ stories to be seen and understood in their strongest light.
JoAnna represents a wide range of clients, including individuals, corporations, and nonprofit organizations, across industries such as biotechnology, energy, finance, higher education, social services, and collegiate athletics. Her work in the emerging field of college sports litigation includes representing current and former athletes in antitrust class actions challenging NCAA eligibility rules and related restrictions. She also handles matters involving antitrust, white collar, environmental, securities, and contractual disputes.
She has extensive experience managing discovery in complex cases, including several multi-district litigations involving large and varied classes of plaintiffs, while remaining hands-on and supportive of both her clients and litigation teams. Known as an adept communicator, JoAnna handles high-stakes discovery disputes, oral arguments, fact and expert witness depositions, mock jury exercises, settlement negotiations, mediations, and trial proceedings with a notable degree of competence and care.
Outside her regular practice, JoAnna teaches courses in International Law, International Human Rights Law, Comparative Legal Systems, and The Nature and Function of Law.
JoAnna graduated from The George Washington Law School, where she was a member of the International Human Rights Law Clinic and was selected for the International Human Rights Law summer intensive at the University of Oxford. She also served as Editor-in-Chief of The George Washington International Law Review, Chair of the Van Vleck Constitutional Moot Court Competition, and research assistant to Professors Ralph Steinhardt and Sonia Suter.
Additionally, JoAnna served as a legal extern to The Honorable Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and The Honorable Judge Ann Aiken in the District of Oregon. Her law school internships included work with the United States Agency for International Development, the Environmental Defense Fund, and an indigent criminal defense firm.
Before law school, JoAnna worked in international development and human rights, living and working in Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.
