Susan Alker

Susan Alker has twenty-five years of experience as counsel to financial institutions and corporations. Susan worked in “Big Law” at the AmLaw 100 firms of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Reed Smith LLP, and Winston & Strawn LLP. She has also worked in-house in General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Managing Director roles for investment firms based in California and New York.

Susan's extensive background lends valuable perspective to Alker Law Group's work both with financial institutions and with small and medium-sized businesses. She offers clients the rare advantage of seasoned, complex business and financial experience in a boutique law firm setting. The firm's size and commitment to service allows Susan to flexibly partner with her business clients, bringing world class expertise, creativity and practicality to their transactions and operations.

As a partner in private practice in some of the nation’s largest law firms, Susan managed a variety of financial transactions, negotiating and drafting agreements for banks and other financial institutions as well as for corporate borrowers, including private equity firms. She formed, developed, and led a financial transactions practice team, negotiating corporate loan transactions on behalf of major banks, financial institutions, private equity funds, and alternative investment funds. She also launched Reed Smith's West Coast corporate finance practice, where she negotiated corporate loan transactions — on behalf of companies, financial institutions of all types, and private equity funds — and advised clients regarding leveraged acquisition financings, bilateral credit facilities, asset-based loans, and syndicated credit facilities.

Both in private practice and in-house, she worked on numerous corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, review of a wide variety of contracts, corporate governance issues, regulatory and compliance matters, and corporate formation and issuance of equity.

Susan is the author of the book Corporate Credit: A CFO’s Guide to Bank Debt and Loan Agreements. She has been a frequent speaker on topics of interest to financial institutions and corporate clients, and she currently writes for Alker Law Group's Lending Perspective blog.

Education

• University of California Los Angeles - JD
• California State University Los Angeles - MBA
• Ambassador University – BA

Bar Admissions

• California
• New York

Publications

• Corporate Credit: A CFO's Guide to Bank Debt and Loan Agreements, Auburn Drive Publishing (2010)
• Exploring Financing Options for M&A Deals, VC Portfolio Company M&A Strategies: Leading Lawyers on Developing Negotiation Strategies, Analyzing Deal Terms, and Getting Deals Done, Thomson/Aspatore Books (2008)

Professional Associations

• Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
  Executive Committee Member/Vice President (2009 - 2011)
  Chair, Business Law Section (2004 - 2009)
• Association for Corporate Growth
  Program Chair, Private Equity Program (2009 and 2010)
  Entertainment Industry Program (2008)
• Los Angeles County Bar Assoc./Women’s Lawyers Assoc. of Los Angeles
  Co-Chair, Joint Task Force: Retention & Promotion of Women in the Legal Profession (2011 - 2014)
• American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers
  Fellow (2022)

In the Community

• Board of Directors, Rotary Club of Brewster, NY
• Board of Directors, Amos House, Danbury, CT
• Chair, Board of Directors, Trinity Center (Homeless Shelter), Walnut Creek, CA (2016 - 2020)
• Chair, Board of Directors, Rabbit’s Care Packages, Orinda, CA (2015 - 2017)
• Board of Directors, Friends Outside in Los Angeles County, Pasadena, CA (2012 - 2014)
• Board of Directors, Harriet Buhai Center, Los Angeles, CA (2011 - 2014)
• Board of Directors, Altadena Children's Center, Altadena, CA (2002 - 2004)