LCA Charter Senior Fellow Cecilie M. Loidolt of Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP, in Denver, Colorado, is the 2025 President of Litigation Counsel of America.

Cecilie is the inaugural recipient of the LCA’s J. Ric Gass Trial Presentation Award. She has taken over sixty cases to jury, including many high profile birth injury cases involving life-care plans valued in the mid to high eight figures. She has also consulted on and serves as national counsel on complex medical malpractice cases, including claims of birth injury. Cecilie has expertise in defending against the “Reptile Theory,” which is frequently employed by plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers, and has done so with acclaimed success. She is a frequent speaker on jury selection topics.

Cecilie has won high-profile trials, including a first-of-its-kind opioid addiction case for a pain specialist. The lawsuit against the pain specialist alleged that he got the patient addicted to high-dose opioids that far exceeded CDC recommended guidelines, and that he was addicted for 23 years. Despite his 23 year use of high-dose opioids, the evidence was that the patient was not addicted. The physician attended the trial and testified via zoom, as he was delayed in Hong Kong for two years as a result of COVID. The jury found in his favor. Defense verdicts are often not reported by the media, but this one was reported.

She won two failure to diagnose stroke trials in 2024. One of them involved a claim that a family medicine physician failed to diagnose and treat hypertensive emergency, failed to hospitalize the 39-year-old male patient, and failed to prevent hemorrhagic stroke the next day. Plaintiffs’ counsel requested a verdict in excess of $40 million. The jury returned a verdict for the defense in 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Cecilie is a Charter Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, having been a member since 2007. She has earned the distinctions Barrister, Order of Juris and Advocate, Order of Certus. She maintains an AV Preeminent® rating Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Rating™ and is repeatedly selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America for medical malpractice. She has been listed as a Minnesota Law & Politics’ Super Lawyer® for over twenty years.

She was named Minnesota Lawyer of the Year in 2012, for the successful defense of several notable cases. One of those cases included the defense of a hospital for its treatment of an infant’s high fever, which resulted from a vaccine-preventable disease, and the mother’s refusal to vaccinate. The infant died. The jury found the hospital not negligent, and the mother negligent.

While Cecilie enjoys and appreciates these accolades, her greatest career accomplishment is the gratitude of her clients, who have bestowed upon her the nicknames, “gunslinger,” “pitbull,” and “bulldog,” as a result of her tireless fight for justice for her clients.

Outside of law, Cecilie and her family are devoted to public service. Her husband, Neal, served in the military for over 34 years, having deployed twice to Iraq. Their son, Sam, served in the military as well, and deployed to Romania. The family’s mantra is “we will make it work.” As a result of her own dedication and humanitarian efforts, Cecilie proudly received the 2019 Superior Volunteer Service Award, the highest National Guard award to a civilian.