Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A.

Corporate Trust & Agency Services/ Structured Finance

Considered “incredibly smart” and an “outstanding lawyer” (Chambers USA, 2025), Doneene Damon is chair of the firm’s Corporate Trust and Agency Services Group.

“When Doneene speaks, everyone listens” (Chambers USA, 2025). She focuses her practice on formation and operational issues relating to Delaware statutory trusts and Delaware and New York common law trusts in all types of commercial and business transactions, representing issuers, underwriters, investors, and trustees. Doneene advises clients on the use of common law trusts, statutory trusts, owner trusts, master trusts, series trusts, and titling trusts in connection with capital markets transactions.

”Experienced, careful, smart and very personable” (Chambers USA), Doneene was recently name among the Forbes Best-in-State Lawyers for Delaware, 2025.   She is also named among the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Diversity Leaders in Business, the News Journal’s Most Influential Delawareans, Savoy Magazine’s Most Influential Black Lawyers, and a Women, Influence & Power in Law Managing Partner of the Year.

Her practice includes representing banks and trust companies in connection with their trust and agency services under Delaware and New York law in various commercial transactions, including their roles as trustee, collateral agent, verification agent, custodian, master servicer, depository agent, securities intermediary, paying agent, registrar and transfer agent, and exchange agent.

She also served as primary Delaware counsel in a series of first-to-market structured finance transactions employing the use of blockchain distributed ledger technology.

Doneene’s varied corporate trust transactional practice includes

• asset-backed securities, including auto loans and leases, credit cards, student loans, consumer loans, residential mortgages, home equity loans, equipment leases, litigation settlements, insurance policies, and intellectual property;
• collateralized loan obligations;
• cross-border leasing transactions;
• mutual funds and exchange traded funds;
• health care receivables;
• liquidation trusts;
• voting trusts;
• independent director and independent manager;
• private equity funds;
• defeasance transactions;
• capital securities and hybrid capital securities; and
• royalty trusts

Publications

A Conversation with Richards, Layton & Finger—Savoy | Winter 2022

If you have had Delaware-related legal issues, then you are probably familiar with Richards, Layton & Finger. Founded in 1899, Richards Layton is an integral part of Delaware’s legal landscape, from corporate, advisory and transactional advice to bet-the-company litigation in Delaware’s courts. In this article, we talk with two of Richards Layton’s leaders – President Doneene…

A Conversation with the First Women to Lead Two of Delaware’s Largest Firms—ABA | February 20, 2020

When Kathleen Furey McDonough was elected chair of Potter Anderson and Corroon LLP’s executive committee in 2018, she became the first woman to lead a major Delaware firm. Doneene K. Damon, elected president of Richards, Layton, and Finger, P.A., in 2019, became the first African American woman in Delaware to serve in that role. Neither thought…

Delaware’s Chancery Court: An Internationally Respected Part of The Delaware Brand—Delaware Business | January/February 2020

One of the attributes that distinguishes Delaware internationally is its court of business law. Why? The Delaware brand is sought after across the world for several reasons and its Chancery Court is certainly one of them. Our Chancery Court is very well regarded around the world, and in fact the cases determined in Delaware’s Chancery Court…

The Alphabet Soup of the Federal Crisis Programs—Bloomberg Law Reports | July 2009

This two-part article attempts to make some sense out of the alphabet soup of the federal crisis programs by providing a detailed introduction to each program that has been founded since the passage of EESA in October 2008.

“The Role of the Trustee,” Practising Law Institute

In addition to firm leadership roles, Doneene holds leadership positions in many organizations, including:

Structured Finance Association, Vice Chair Executive Committee Trustee Committee Outside Counsel Committee Women in Securitization Initiative American Law Institute The Forum of Executive Women, Board of Directors, Immediate Past Chair Christiana Care Health System, Inc. and Health Services, Inc., Former Chair of the Board of Directors Delaware Business Roundtable, Board of Directors and Executive Committee St. Joseph’s University, Board of Trustees Temple University Beasley School of Law, Board of Visitors

Doneene also serves on the boards of directors for one public company and two private companies.

Recognition

American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, Fellow American Bar Foundation, Fellow Chambers USA, since 2010 Forbes Best-in-State Lawyers 2025 The Best Lawyers in America, since 2017; Wilmington, DE Securitization and Structured Finance Law Lawyer of the Year, 2022 The Legal 500, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2021 Super Lawyers, since 2018, Top Ten 2025 James H. Gilliam Jr. Award, the American Heart Association, 2024 The Delaware 222, Delaware Business Times, 2025, 2024 Delaware Today Top Lawyer, 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 Delaware Today Top Women in Business, 2021 Managing Partner of the Year—Law Firm, Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards, 2021 Diversity Leaders in Business, Philadelphia Business Journal, 2021 Most Influential Delawareans, News Journal, 2021 Most Influential Black Lawyers, Savoy magazine, 2021, 2018 The National Black Lawyers Top 100, 2021 Delaware Barristers Association, Louis L. Redding Thurgood Marshall Award, 2016 National Association of Professional Women, VIP Woman of the Year Circle, 2015-2016 Jean Allard Glass Cutter Award, American Bar Association, 2015 National Diversity Council, Leadership Excellence in the Law Award, 2014 Pennsylvania Diversity Council, Leadership in Law, 2014 Temple University Beasley School of Law, Gallery of Success, 2014 Saint Joseph’s University Haub School of Business, Haub Hall of Fame, 2023 The International Women’s Review Board for Excellence in Law YWCA Trailblazer Award

Bar Admissions

Delaware, 1992 District of Columbia, 1994 New York, 2012

Temple University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1992 St. Joseph's University, B.S., cum laude, Accounting, 1989