Francesca Odell

Francesca L. Odell is a member of Cleary Gottlieb’s Executive Committee, Leader of the Americas Corporate Practice, and Co-Leader of the Public Company Group. 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 advisory group and frequently speaks and publishes on corporate governance topics. She regularly advises 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; artificial intelligence (AI) governance and risk management; and environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

Francesca joined the firm in 1996 and became a partner in 2005. J.D., New York University, School of Law (1996); B.A., University of Wisconsin (1993).

Member, New York Bar. Member, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY).

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.