Brown Rudnick LLP

Special Situations, Credit and Trading

Partner

Eleni Zodiates is a partner in the Special Situations, Credit & Trading Practice Group. Eleni is a generalist finance lawyer with experience in a wide range of sophisticated, international financings, including corporate finance (RCFs, including super senior alongside HY bonds), special situations and direct lending (involving stressed/distressed elements and disputes), real estate finance (acquisition and development), fund finance, asset-backed financings including emerging markets (i.e. Africa) and acquisition finance.

Eleni has been named a “Real Estate Finance Rising Star of the Year” finalist by the Real Estate Capital Europe Awards 2023, the only lawyer on the list, for her work on the $800 million global refinancing of Generator Hostels. The matter also earned her a nomination for “Rising Star” in Law.com International’s 2024 British Legal Awards. Brown Rudnick was named a “Law Firm of the Year” finalist in the Real Estate Capital Europe Awards and was shortlisted for “Banking and Finance Team of the Year” in the British Legal Awards. IFLR named Eleni one of six finalists for the 2024 Europe Women Dealmakers Hall of Fame award.

Eleni has been recognized as a “Dealmaker of the Year” in The Global Legal Post’s Women & Diversity in Law Awards 2024 for her exceptional contribution to the U.K. legal profession and the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion. She was a finalist for the award in 2023.

Eleni acts for private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, real estate investment firms, developers, family offices and corporate borrowers, typically acting borrower-side or for direct lenders.

In addition to providing first rate legal advice and executing deals efficiently, she is part of a team that arranges and delivers billions of dollars in deals to its clients yearly. The team frequently introduces off-market opportunities to and on behalf of their clients and assists them put together debt and/or equity capital stacks for investments. This ancillary service is really where Eleni and her team can add value to the firm’s clients.

Prior to joining Brown Rudnick, Eleni completed a secondment as sole in-house counsel at a private equity fund investing in asset-backed special opportunities and worked at other large international U.S.-based law firms, including Vinson & Elkins and Jones Day.

Eleni co-leads the firm’s Women's Initiative in London with partner Jessica Lee.

Eleni is a mentor with the Stephen James Partnership Diversity Programme where she offers mentorship to young Black talent. She is also a mentor with the University of Law.

Senior Courts of England and Wales

University of Birmingham, LL.B.

The College of Law, Birmingham, LPC with distinction