Lifetime Achievement: Ellen Odoner

Ellen Odoner and I met in September 1977 as first-year associates in Weil’s Corporate Department. There were four of us—three women and one man. A first for Weil, and they were a bit confused about what to do with us. But it was clear from the start that Ellen was an exceptional lawyer and would be a trailblazer for women in the bar. Ellen was the first female partner in Weil’s Corporate Department. Her fierce and uncompromising intelligence, intellectual curiosity and integrity put her in a class of her own. It made her a singularly inspiring and instructive peer, and her friendship changed my life.

Ellen built a prominent career as an M&A lawyer, specializing in the emerging field of cross-border M&A transactions for clients such as Reuters, Hanson, Pirelli and L’Oréal. Ellen is the consummate problem solver (probably attributable to her love of mystery novels and crossword puzzles). She impressed both clients and her adversaries alike. It is the ultimate compliment for a deal lawyer to be approached by a counterparty after a deal closes with the request to represent them the next time around. And it happened to Ellen all the time!

Ellen has a moral compass that is unwavering and her desire to do the right thing always helped her clients achieve their goals. Ellen was among the first to recognize that clients needed a holistic approach to dealing with the regulatory scheme of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Building on her experience representing public companies in M&A and capital markets transactions, Ellen formed Weil’s Public Company Advisory Group to address disclosure, governance and compliance issues in a coordinated and comprehensive fashion, focusing on financial reporting and internal control matters that often were “bet the company” issues.

Ellen’s influence within the legal and business communities led to her appointment 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. She co-authored the FCAG’s final report, a milestone in the industry.

Formidable as Ellen’s achievements in corporate law are, her desire to “do the right thing” led her to also focus on diversity in the profession. Inspired by her experience of being in the first class of women at Yale, Ellen was active in Weil’s diversity initiatives since their inception—she was founding chair of Women@Weil, the affinity group for female attorneys—and had a central role in several pioneering programs both at Weil and across the industry. She is particularly proud of a New York City Bar fellowship program that trained South African lawyers who were leading the effort to break down barriers to the profession in their country. Ellen has a profound sense of decency, unshakable resolve and the courage of her convictions—a powerful combination that has made her a pivotal figure in the lives of so many female lawyers and attorneys of color.

Ellen’s remarkable 43-year career at Weil has too many achievements to count, and her influence and impact continues to ripple out across the industry, from the successful lawyers she mentored, to those attorneys they mentored in turn, and so on. She showed us all how to be excellent lawyers, what it really means to do your best for clients and colleagues, and the ways to reach our utmost potential. Ellen also showed us how to be excellent individuals. I cannot think of someone more deserving than Ellen of a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Andrea Bernstein

Andrea Bernstein is a retired partner of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.