Overview
Doneene Damon’s extraordinary leadership includes her roles as the immediate past president of Richards Layton and chair of the Corporate Trust and Agency Services Group.
Doneene 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.
Considered “terrific” and praised as “experienced, careful, smart and very personable” (Chambers USA), in 2021 alone Doneene was 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
PRACTICES
- Temple University School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1992
- St. Joseph's University, B.S., cum laude, Accounting, 1989
Education
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 reasonsand its Chancery Court is certainly one of them. Our Chancery Court isvery well regarded around the world, and in fact the cases determined inDelaware’s Chancery Court are relied on…
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
Leadership
In addition to firm leadership roles, Doneene holds leadership positions in many organizations, including:
- Structured Finance Association, Board Member and Executive Committee Member
- Trustee Committee
- Outside Counsel Committee
- Women in Securitization Initiative
- American Law Institute
- The Forum of Executive Women, Board of Directors, Chair
- Christiana Care Health System, Inc. and Health Services, Inc., Former Chair of the Board of Directors
- Delaware Prosperity Partnership, Board Member
- Delaware Business Roundtable, Board of Directors and Executive Committee
- St. Joseph’s University, Board of Trustees
- St. Joseph’s University HAUB School of Business, Board of Visitors
- Temple University Beasley School of Law, Board of Visitors
- Mayor-Elect Carney Transition Committee, Co-Chair
Doneene also serves on the boards of directors for two profit companies.
Recognition
- American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, Fellow
- American Bar Foundation, Fellow
- Chambers USA, since 2010
- The Best Lawyers in America, since 2017; Wilmington, DE Securitization and Structured Finance Law Lawyer of the Year, 2022
- The Legal 500, 2024, 2023, 2021
- Super Lawyers, since 2018
- James H. Gilliam Jr. Award, the American Heart Association, 2024
- The Delaware 222, Delaware Business Times, 2025, 2024
- Delaware Today Top Lawyer, 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
