Biography
Francesca Odell is a Partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in the New York office. Her practice focuses on corporate advisory and governance matters, particularly as they relate to public companies and their management and boards of directors. She also has deep transactional experience, specifically in capital markets, as well as mergers and acquisitions and financing.
Francesca leads Cleary’s corporate transactions and advisory practice and regularly counsels boards of directors and management on a variety of topics, including disclosure and compliance; stock exchange listing requirements; board composition and director independence; shareholder engagement and activism; shareholder proposals and proxy season trends; management and director succession planning; cybersecurity; crisis management; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters. She has a reputation for delivering practical, business-savvy solutions to complex and high-profile issues.
Francesca frequently speaks and publishes on corporate governance topics. She is a Fellow at the American College of Governance Counsel, a Member of the Board of Advisors of the NYU Law Institute for Corporate Governance and Finance, and an Advisory Board Member at the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets & Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School.
Francesca has been recognized for her work by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Chambers Latin America, Chambers Brazil, the Legal 500 U.S., the Legal 500 Latin America, The American Lawyer, and Euromoney’s Americas Women in Business Law Awards, among other publications.
Francesca received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, and she holds her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin. She joined Cleary in 1996 and became a partner in 2005.
