Ellen Odoner

CONTACT

ellen@allerhand-odoner.com
(646) 693-8765

EDUCATION

Yale University | B.A., magna cum laude, 1973
Harvard Law School | J.D., 1977

BAR ADMISSIONS

New York
Pennsylvania

Ellen Odoner retired from Weil Gotshal & Manges at the end of 2020 after more than 40 years of practice. For much of her career, Ellen was a highly regarded M&A lawyer specializing in cross-border transactions. When Sarbanes-Oxley was adopted in 2002, she founded and led Weil’s Public Company Advisory Group, one of the very first practice groups within a major law firm dedicated to providing integrated advice in the evolving areas of corporate governance, disclosure and compliance.

Ellen has represented public companies, significant not-for-profit institutions and their boards of directors, audit committees and other committees of independent directors in complex matters. These have included public disclosure, financial restatements and internal control matters, internal investigations, board and committee evaluations, board and executive leadership transitions, relationships with controlling and activist stockholders, related party transactions and relationships with the independent auditor.

Ellen was included in the 2020, 2019 and 2018 NACD Directorship 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the boardroom compiled by NACD Directorship magazine. She is an elected Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel. Ellen has been recognized in Chambers USA, Legal 500 US, Best Lawyers in America and various other publications. In Chambers USA, clients have described her as “smart, sharp and great at thinking strategically” and as “a most trusted adviser" who is "always thoughtful" and "extremely patient and valuable." She has also been praised for being an “incredibly bright, hardworking, big-picture thinker” and “a wonderful resource in very tough situations.” She was named “Best in Corporate Governance” at Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Americas Women in Business Law Awards in 2015 and the same year was also named among the “Top Women” for M&A in New York by Super Lawyers.

Ellen served as chief of staff to the Hon. Harvey Goldschmid, co-chair of the Financial Crisis Advisory Group established to advise the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the International Accounting Standards Board on the standard-setting implications of the global financial crisis.

Ellen has written and lectured on legal developments affecting public companies and independent directors. She received the prestigious Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing in 2018 for co-authoring “Fiduciary Duties of Corporate Directors in Uncertain Times.”

Ellen was active in Weil’s diversity and pro bono initiatives. She was the founding chair of Women@Weil and led Weil’s participation in the New York City Bar’s African Visiting Lawyers Program. She served as pro bono counsel to the board of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and to the governance committees of the School of American Ballet and the New York City Ballet and led Weil’s representation of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Ellen serves on the executive committee and chairs the audit committee of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and on the advisory board of the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School.