Ellen Holloman

Ellen Holloman is a partner in Cadwalader’s Global Litigation Group. She focuses her practice on representing financial institutions, corporations and individuals in civil litigation and at trial, and in related regulatory enforcement proceedings and corporate internal investigations. She has extensive experience in securities litigation, including derivative and class action litigation, in contract and post-acquisition disputes, and in employment-related claims, including for enforcement of non-compete, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements. Ellen regularly advises companies, boards, special committees and investors in connection with corporate governance matters, including takeover defense and activist contests. She also frequently handles litigation arising from bankruptcy and financial restructuring matters, and has represented secured and unsecured creditors and debtors in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases and out-of-court restructurings across a wide range of industries, including financial services, energy, shipping, licensing and apparel. Ellen’s practice routinely involves matters with complex cross-border intersections, including obtaining large scale overseas discovery under the Hague Convention and other agreements and conducting investigations in response to inquiries under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. She also has advised clients on Constitutional law matters, particularly First and Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. In addition to her civil litigation and trial practice, Ellen has significant experience with white-collar criminal defense matters, and has represented clients responding to regulatory inquires, requests and enforcement proceedings initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Reserve, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, National Association of Securities Dealers, FINRA, Internal Revenue Service, the Office of the New York State Attorney General, New York Stock Exchange, European Commission, and the UK Serious Frauds Office, among others. Ellen is a frequent speaker and panelist on litigation, compliance, corporate governance and diversity and inclusion topics. She is a Lexis Practice Advisor author and has published articles with M&A Lawyer and the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, among others.

Ellen is active in pro bono engagements and committed to public service. Recently, she obtained a full pardon for a Vietnam War-era veteran, who overcame a 30-year period of addiction and homelessness, only to find that a decades-old felony conviction----for ‘‘trespassing’’ while sheltering in an abandoned building in the New England winter----was an obstacle to obtaining gainful employment. Working with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, Ellen authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of several elite private research universities in Fisher v. University of Texas. Her work was cited by the court. She also has been amicus counsel for a citizens tax advocacy group in a challenge to the New York State property tax system. Ellen serves on the Board of Trustees for the Center for Employment Opportunities, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting men and women with criminal convictions with finding employment. She is a member of the Governance, Development and Audit Committees. She also serves on the Board of the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and is a member of the Development Committee. She is a soror of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, a member of Cadwalader’s Global Diversity Committee and a member of the White Collar Crime Subcommittee of the New York City Bar’s Women in the Legal Profession Committee. The New York City Bar Association honored Ellen with the Thurgood Marshall Award in recognition of her representation of post-conviction inmates who are under sentence of capital punishment, and she has been named a Notable Woman in Law by Crain’s New York and recognized by Lawdragon as one of the ‘‘500 Leading Lawyers in America.’’

Prior to joining Cadwalader, Ellen was an associate in the Litigation Department in the New York and London offices of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and a partner in a New York law firm with an active trial practice in state and federal courts.