Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP

Ellison (Nelly) Ward Merkel is a seasoned first-chair trial lawyer who has achieved outstanding results in bet-the-company litigation. Her practice spans a broad range of commercial disputes, including M&A litigation, securities and commodities enforcement and litigation, investor disputes, market manipulation claims, structured financial products disputes (including ISDA disputes), activist shareholder litigation, short seller disputes, sports betting litigation, construction disputes, and trade secret and employee mobility litigation. She represents a diverse roster of clients, including investment fund managers (private equity funds, private credit funds, hedge funds, venture capital funds), financial institutions, major public and private corporations, creditor committees, litigation trusts, boards of directors, family offices, and high net worth individuals.

The throughline of Nelly’s diverse practice is that clients consistently turn to her with their most complex, high stakes matters due to her strategic judgment, commercial savvy, and absolute, unrelenting commitment to obtaining a successful outcome. Over fifteen years, Nelly has achieved wins at every stage of litigation and trial. She has appeared before courts across the country as well as arbitral bodies including JAMS, AAA, and the LCIA, with particular experience before the state and federal courts in New York and the Court of Chancery of Delaware.

While her representations have spanned many industries, claims, and jurisdictions, Nelly has honed special expertise in financial services litigation; over the past decade she has represented clients in cases involving well over $10 billion in structured financial products, including RMBS, CMBS, CDOs, CLOs, FPAs, and more. Nelly’s sophisticated understanding of market practice around complex products has allowed her to take apart opposing fact and expert witnesses on the stand, while presenting her clients’ stories at trial in a simple and compelling way. Nelly has written and presented extensively on the litigation implications of the recent boom in Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”) and is currently advising numerous clients involved in SPAC litigation.

In 2025, Nelly was recognized by The American Lawyer as a “Litigator of the Week” for securing a $63 million verdict after a five-week trial in which Monmouth County jurors found defendants had defrauded her clients into surrendering control of their company.

In addition to her thriving commercial practice, Nelly has also maintained an active pro bono practice, including partnering with the Brennan Center for Justice on several voting rights matters. She has maintained a career-long commitment to educational equity both in practice and outside of it. At Quinn Emanuel, she has taken on many pro bono education cases, including successfully briefing and arguing an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit of an important issue of law under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), and currently spearheads the firm’s pro bono partnership with Advocates for Children. She has served on the junior board of College Summit and the board of Creo College Preparatory Charter School.

Before joining the firm, Nelly clerked for Judge Francis in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Prior to that, she was the Sinsheimer Fellow at the Partnership for Children’s Rights.