Stephanie K. Wood

Stephanie K. Wood is Counsel at the Firm. Ms. Wood has honed her persuasive advocacy and effective mediation skills through extensive high stakes litigation experience and now focuses on employment disputes in the private and federal sector and discrimination claims in educational settings. She is an avid human rights advocate and has experience with employment discrimination claims, constitutional rights violations, gender-based violence claims, and Title IX. Ms. Wood contributed to an amicus curiae brief cited favorably by the 10th Circuit’s opinion reinstating two sexual assault survivors’ Title IX gender discrimination lawsuit against the University of Colorado, which was recognized that year as groundbreaking legal precedent protecting women’s rights.

Ms. Wood keenly understands what is persuasive to stakeholders and factfinders and is particularly adept at creating leverage in negotiations and developing effective litigation and trial strategies for clients. She has substantial trial experience in both state and federal courts. Ms. Wood has first chair trial and appellate experience in multiple matters and has successfully mediated numerous matters.

Ms. Wood believes that being an effective advocate involves guiding clients through unfamiliar and challenging terrain to reach the most constructive and cost-effective result given the circumstances. Ms. Wood is highly empathetic and trauma informed and trained, all of which are valuable attributes for anyone providing dispute resolution services. Overall, Ms. Wood endeavors to make dispute resolution both more constructive and successful for her clients.

Prior to joining GEL as Counsel, Ms. Wood served as Principal of The Law Firm of Stephanie K. Wood and as Counsel at WilmerHale LLP in Washington, DC. Following law school, Ms. Wood clerked for the Honorable J. Frederick Motz at the U.S. District Court for Maryland in Baltimore. During law school, Ms. Wood clerked for a boutique law firm focused on work before the U.S. Supreme Court and contributed to SCOTUSblog. Also, during law school, Ms. Wood was a summer intern with the U.S. Department of Justice, Constitutional Torts Branch.

Ms. Wood earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law, in Washington, DC, where she served as the Associate Executive Editor of American University’s International Law Review and successfully competed in regional and national moot court competitions. She graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University in New York where she wrote for the weekly Maroon-News and successfully competed in national and international debate tournaments.