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AnnaStressenger

Senior Managing Associate
Washington, D.C.

O 202.973.2779

AnnaStressenger

Senior Managing Associate

Anna is a senior managing associate in the firm’s Business Litigation practice group. She focuses her practice on representing commercial clients in all stages of litigation, including pre-trial motions practice, research, discovery, settlement negotiation, arbitration, and with a special focus on appeals. While attending law school, Anna served as a law clerk to the Maryland Deputy Attorney General where she assisted in the prosecution of a high-profile, gang-related murder trial. She also worked as a student attorney through the Washington College of Law Clinic Program during which time she counseled clients seeking asylum, T-Visas, U-Visas and citizenship.

After law school, Anna served as senior appellate judicial clerk to Chief Justice Rhys S. Hodge at the Supreme Court of the United States Virgin Islands where she wrote published opinions and judgments in civil and criminal cases involving matters of first impression. Prior to joining Thompson Hine, Anna was an associate attorney at an AmLaw 100 law firm based in Washington, D.C. where she handled complex commercial disputes and counseled international corporations on matters involving international regulatory compliance issues.

Recognized in Best Lawyers Ones to Watch 2027

Focus Areas

Examples of Anna’s experience include:

  • Drafted appeals from Food & Drug Administration Marketing Denial Orders in the 4th, 5th and 9th Circuits, including a successful 5th Circuit en banc appeal which was subsequently granted certiorari, appearing before the Supreme Court of the United States in December 2024.
  • Drafted preliminary injunctions seeking to enjoin state laws involving the Supremacy Clause, implied conflict preemption, the Foreign Commerce Clause, Equal Protection, and Article III standing, and drafted subsequent appellate briefs in the 8th, 7th, and 4th Circuits.
  • Provided regulatory compliance counseling to the nation’s largest distributors and retailers of vaping products for cannabis, THC, CBD, hemp and nicotine, and their Chinese manufacturers, at both the federal level and across all fifty states and territories.
  • Successfully represented an international hotel and resort developer against a large international bank in a real estate and contract dispute spanning two decades and set in the Dominican Republic.
  • Represented business clients under investigation by state Offices of the Attorney General and by the Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives.
  • Represented business clients facing trademark infringement claims before the International Trade Commission, the Federal Circuit, and the Southern District of Florida.
  • Counseled product manufacturers through investigation and recall by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
  • Represented international corporations with World Bank-financed projects in Colombia and Ecuador facing sanctions proceedings.
  • Counseled restaurant chain in shareholder litigation and arbitration in the Southern District of New York and United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
  • Represented contractors and sub-contractors in construction litigation in Maryland State Court.
  • Argued before the Third Circuit and drafted appellate briefs on behalf of a pro bono client facing deportation in a matter involving the statutory construction of the Immigration and Nationality Act’s stop-time statute.
  • Won asylum for pro bono Afghani client fleeing forced marriage to a Taliban member.
  • Panelist, “The Future of the Cannabis Industry,” Next Generation Nicotine Delivery Conference, July 2023
  • Panelist, “Recent Developments in Tort Law,” Episode 5, ABA’s Annual Review podcast, October 2020
  • Creator, moderator and panelist, “Because of Sex: Breaking Down the Supreme Court’s Title VII Cases,” November 2019
  • Included in the 2024 to 2027 editions of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch® in America for Commercial Litigation
  • Staffer, American University Washington College of Law, Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Professional Associations

  • Member, DC LGBT Bar Association
  • Member, The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights

Community Activities

  • Member/former volunteer, Humane Society of St. Thomas
  • Member, Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park

Education

  • American University Washington College of Law, J.D., 2016
  • Muhlenberg College, B.A.Sc., 2010

Bar Admissions

  • District of Columbia

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit