Elaine P. Golin is a partner in the Litigation Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Her practice includes contracts, corporate governance, RMBS and securities litigation, as well as other types of complex commercial litigation. Golin also focuses on the negotiated resolution of complex matters.
Recently, Golin has represented Cardinal Health in matters pertaining to the opioid epidemic, providing advice on litigation and resolution strategy, governance and related matters. Golin was one of the principal negotiators of the national opioid settlement among pharmaceutical distributors and state and local governments. Golin has also advised Bank of America, Huntington Bank and other financial institutions on litigation and regulatory issues relating to Covid era relief programs, including the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program.
Lawdragon Honors
Golin has represented Bank of America, PNC and other financial institutions in numerous disputes concerning mortgage-related matters. Representations include Bank of America’s groundbreaking settlement of claims relating to Countrywide mortgage-backed securities and related litigation, Bank of America’s multifaceted resolutions with FHFA, MBIA, FGIC and AIG, Bank of America’s global RMBS agreement with the Department of Justice, and PNC in mortgage litigation with RFC. Golin acts as national strategic counsel to Bank of America in RMBS and other mortgage-related matters.
Other selected significant representations include: J.C. Flowers, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase in material adverse change litigation with Sallie Mae; IAC in litigation with Liberty Media; Rohm and Haas in its suit to enforce its merger agreement with Dow Chemical; and senior secured lenders in the Spectrum Brands bankruptcy litigation. Golin also participated in the pro bono representation of artist Christoph Büchel in a successful First Circuit appeal involving the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990.
As a litigation associate, Golin worked on several of the firm’s high-profile matters, including its representation of IBP in IBP v. Tyson and of Larry Silverstein in insurance litigation arising out of the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Golin received a B.A. from Yale College, a diploma in Literature from the University of Edinburgh, and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was an articles editor of The Columbia Law Review and a James Kent Scholar. She clerked for the Honorable Judge Sandra Lynch of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Among other professional recognitions, Golin has been repeatedly selected by Lawdragon as one of the 500 leading lawyers in the United States, including this year, a leading litigator in America, and as a Lawdragon Legend, and was profiled in Lawdragon’s Lawyer Limelight.
Golin serves on the board of the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, a non-profit providing leadership education to low-income high-school and college women of color, and on the board of Mobilization for Justice, a legal services organization in New York City.
