Shanell Cramer, partner and co-chair of Alston & Bird’s Finance Group, has been recognized as a "Distinguished Leader” by the New York Law Journal in its 2020 awards honoring attorneys in leadership roles who have achieved impressive results and demonstrated clear leadership skills in the past year.
Focusing her practice on structured and warehouse finance, Cramer represents investment banks and other financial institutions in mortgage banking and financing transactions spanning virtually every asset class. In addition to advising on the purchase and sale of residential, commercial, and multifamily mortgage loans and single-family rental properties, she counsels clients on structuring and negotiating warehouse lines, various government insured and guaranteed loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity deals, real-estate-owned properties, residential securities, tax liens, and student loans.
As co-chair of Alston & Bird’s Finance Group, Cramer oversees the largest and most profitable transactional practice in the firm, with more than 100 attorneys. Since taking on the group’s leadership in 2017, revenues for the practice have grown by more than 30 percent.
Cramer has also played a significant role in expanding the practice through strategic lateral hiring. She was pivotal in recruiting London partners Andrew Petersen and James Spencer to open the firm’s London office in 2019 and building a trans-Atlantic practice serving finance clients in the U.S. and UK.
In the U.S., Cramer has brought added cachet to the firm’s finance capabilities in New York by acquiring top talent in several key areas, including corporate debt advisory and restructuring senior counsel Doug Taber; structured finance partner Katrina Llanes and counsel Robin Regan; distressed debt partners Ken Rothenberg, David Hoyt, and Russell Chiappetta; and corporate debt finance partner Paul Hespel.
Shanell is a member of Alston & Bird’s Women’s Initiative Steering Committee and former chair of the New York office’s Women’s Initiative Committee. She also serves as a mentor to several junior attorneys at the firm. She is involved in many firm pro bono initiatives, including the New York Chapter of the Pajama Program, a national organization that promotes and supports a comforting bedtime routine for at-risk children.
Focusing her practice on structured and warehouse finance, Cramer represents investment banks and other financial institutions in mortgage banking and financing transactions spanning virtually every asset class. In addition to advising on the purchase and sale of residential, commercial, and multifamily mortgage loans and single-family rental properties, she counsels clients on structuring and negotiating warehouse lines, various government insured and guaranteed loans, mezzanine loans, preferred equity deals, real-estate-owned properties, residential securities, tax liens, and student loans.
As co-chair of Alston & Bird’s Finance Group, Cramer oversees the largest and most profitable transactional practice in the firm, with more than 100 attorneys. Since taking on the group’s leadership in 2017, revenues for the practice have grown by more than 30 percent.
Cramer has also played a significant role in expanding the practice through strategic lateral hiring. She was pivotal in recruiting London partners Andrew Petersen and James Spencer to open the firm’s London office in 2019 and building a trans-Atlantic practice serving finance clients in the U.S. and UK.
In the U.S., Cramer has brought added cachet to the firm’s finance capabilities in New York by acquiring top talent in several key areas, including corporate debt advisory and restructuring senior counsel Doug Taber; structured finance partner Katrina Llanes and counsel Robin Regan; distressed debt partners Ken Rothenberg, David Hoyt, and Russell Chiappetta; and corporate debt finance partner Paul Hespel.
Shanell is a member of Alston & Bird’s Women’s Initiative Steering Committee and former chair of the New York office’s Women’s Initiative Committee. She also serves as a mentor to several junior attorneys at the firm. She is involved in many firm pro bono initiatives, including the New York Chapter of the Pajama Program, a national organization that promotes and supports a comforting bedtime routine for at-risk children.