Ellen d'Alelio

Partner

• edalelio@steptoe.com
• vCard
• Washington Office

Ellen d'Alelio is a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where she is a member of the Corporate, Securities and Finance practice group.  In her thirty years of law practice, she has had considerable experience in complex transactions and regulatory representations involving financial services, commercial real estate, and related corporate matters.  A significant portion of her practice involves structuring, negotiating, and documenting agreements of all sorts, including partnership and joint venture agreements, asset and stock purchase/sale agreements, financing, leasing, operating, licensing, distribution, and other types of agreements.  Ms. d’Alelio also has played a substantial role in Steptoe’s management over the years, having, among other roles, managed the firm's Business Transactions Practice, including its financial institutions and real estate practices, chaired the firm’s Hiring, Professional Training, and Web Site Committees; co-chaired the firm's Practice Management Committee; and served an elected three-year term on her firm's Executive Committee.  Ms. d’Alelio is currently serving elected terms on Steptoe’s Executive Committee, Compensation Committee, and Professional Advancement Committee, the last of which she chairs.

Commercial Real Estate and Related Representations
Over the years, Ms. d’Alelio’s commercial real estate work has spanned a wide variety of projects and clients.  Her representations in this area have involved, among others, real estate acquisitions of all kinds; acquisition, development, and construction projects and joint ventures; like-kind exchanges; commercial leasing projects; ground leasing projects; and construction and permanent loan closings.  Ms. d’Alelio represented FDIC and RTC for many years in complex transactions and contracting activities relating to their real estate and loan assets from failing and failed financial institutions, as well as in privatization of their activities (including the development of numerous RFPs for such privatization), and many other matters.  In addition, she acted as lead counsel for RTC in the formation of several first-of-a-kind public/private sector limited partnerships and in the negotiation/documentation of the partnerships' acquisitions of portfolios of complex loans and real estate interests with market values of $450 million and $1.28 billion, respectively.

Financial Services, Electronic Banking, and Electronic Commerce Practice
Ms. d’Alelio also has represented financial institutions and other participants in the financial services industry on a broad range of regulatory, corporate, and transactional matters.  These representations have included, for example, matters initiated by federal bank and thrift regulatory agencies, counseling on products and services, and assistance in effecting changes in control of financial institutions. As technological advances and the Internet have transformed financial services operations and commerce more generally, Ms. d’Alelio’s practice has increasingly addressed electronic banking issues involving smart card and Internet-based payment systems as well as, for a  broader range of clients, more general electronic commerce issues involving establishing a presence, and doing business, on the Internet in the B2B and B2C context.

Professional Activities
Ms. d’Alelio has spoken and written extensively over the years on real estate and financial services-related legal topics.  She has written frequently in recent years for The Electronic Banking Law and Commerce Report, on whose editorial board she served for years as a Contributing Editor and currently serves as a member.  Ms. d’Alelio also wrote a chapter for and edited The Commissioner's Legal Handbook, A Introduction to Legal Topics for Housing and Redevelopment Officials, published by the Housing and Development Law Institute (1986).  She is a member of the American Bar Association and of Women in Housing and Finance, Inc., for whom she has served as General Counsel and as Co-Chair of its Technology Task. Over the years, Ms. d’Alelio has served on a number of  professional and bar association committees.  She served as an appointed member of the DC Bar Association's Task Force on Civility in the Profession, co-chairing its Negotiated Transactions Sub-Committee.  Ms. d’Alelio also teaches an advanced course on legal drafting in business transactions at American University’s Washington College of Law.

Professional Affiliations

• Contributing Editor, The Electronic Banking Law and Commerce Report and Monthly Columnist, (Selected Regulatory Developments)
• American Bar Association, Business Law Section (Banking Law Committee)
• Women in Housing & Finance, Inc., Former General Counsel; Former Co-Chair, Technology Task Force