Directors' College 2017
Gail B. Harris
Gail Harris is the lead director of Evercore Partners Inc., an independent investment banking advisory firm, where she serves as a member of the audit committee and chair of the nominating and governance committee. She joined the board of Evercore Partners at the time of its IPO. She is also on the board of Cigna Life Insurance Company of New York, where she is chair of the outside directors/audit committee, and serves on the boards of several private companies.
Ms. Harris is a member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees, where she chairs the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility, and is a member of the finance and audit committees. She also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council of Stanford Law School.
Ms. Harris is President Emeritus and a current member of the executive committee of the board of New York Cares, the largest non-profit for volunteering in New York City, which creates and manages volunteer programs for more than 1,200 New York City nonprofits, city agencies and public schools, mobilizing 55,000 volunteers in service each year. She has been an adjunct professor of law at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, participating in its Distinguished Practitioners in Residence Program, where she taught a course on international joint ventures.
Ms. Harris began her legal career at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, a leading international law firm based in New York City, in 1977 and was a partner in the Corporate Department from 1984 to 1998. She was Of Counsel to the Firm through June 2012. Ms. Harris has extensive experience in general corporate and securities work, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions and dispositions. During the course of her career, Ms. Harris represented issuers and underwriters in public debt and equity transactions, and participated in the development and structuring of new financial products. Her practice included representing entertainment and media companies as well as international joint ventures. She represented Paramount for over 15 years and also represented Universal Studios (formerly MCA) in many of its international joint ventures. Her responsibilities at Simpson Thacher included membership on the New Partners Committee, Co-Chairing the Personnel Committee and, at various times, membership on the Recruiting Committee and Pro Bono Committee.
Ms. Harris received an A.B. with distinction from Stanford University in 1974 and a J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1977.
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