Why Clients Call Elizabeth
Companies don’t call Elizabeth because they need another lawyer. They call her because they need someone who has spent decades sitting where executive teams sit—helping leadership navigate the legal and business decisions that shape companies. As a longtime General Counsel and executive advisor, Elizabeth understands that legal questions rarely arrive by themselves. They come attached to acquisitions, financing decisions, board discussions, regulatory issues, executive leadership challenges, investor expectations, and strategic business decisions. Buying or selling a business. Preparing for private equity investment, financing, or an exit. Building stronger corporate governance and board processes. Negotiating significant commercial or financial transactions. Elizabeth believes the role of a General Counsel isn’t simply to identify legal risk. It is to help leadership understand that risk, evaluate practical options, and make informed business decisions.
Elizabeth’s Story
For more than twenty-five years, Elizabeth Daane has served as a trusted advisor to executive leadership teams, boards of directors, founders, investors, and growing companies navigating the legal decisions that shape businesses. A former General Counsel and Executive Vice President of ORIX Corporation USA, Elizabeth has spent her career helping companies grow, acquire businesses, strengthen governance, build enterprise compliance programs, manage risk, and navigate complex legal and business challenges. Elizabeth approaches every client engagement with the perspective of someone who has spent decades inside executive conference rooms. Every recommendation has business consequences. Every transaction affects people. Every governance decision influences the future of the organization. That perspective ultimately became the foundation of Unified CLO: trust talented people, invest in their growth, work collaboratively, and build legal departments that function as true business partners.
Career Experience
ORIX Corporation USA General Counsel & Executive Vice President | Executive Advisor. Elizabeth spent more than fifteen years helping shape the legal and strategic direction of ORIX Corporation USA, advising executive leadership and boards across governance, acquisitions, finance, employment, litigation, regulatory matters, commercial transactions, enterprise risk management, and strategic planning. Among the significant transactions completed during her tenure were the acquisitions of Houlihan Lokey, Robeco Group, Mariner Investment Group, NXT Capital, and Red Capital Group. She also established ORIX USA’s first enterprise compliance program and served as Chair of the ORIX Foundation. Internet America As General Counsel, Elizabeth helped lead the company through its successful initial public offering while supporting acquisitions that expanded the company’s market presence. Her executive responsibilities included Human Resources, Investor Relations, and Public Affairs. Jackson Walker LLP Elizabeth began her legal career advising clients on corporate transactions, restructurings, and bankruptcy matters, building the legal and business foundation that shaped every executive leadership role that followed.
How Elizabeth Helps Clients
Mergers, Acquisitions & Strategic Transactions Elizabeth helps leadership teams evaluate, negotiate, and complete transformative transactions with attention to operational risk, governance issues, contract concerns, regulatory obligations, and post-closing success. Corporate Governance & Board Leadership She works with companies to establish governance structures that encourage thoughtful decision-making, clarify accountability, strengthen oversight, and prepare organizations for growth, outside investment, or strategic transactions. Executive Leadership & Strategic Counsel Clients often describe Elizabeth as one of the steady voices in the room when the stakes are highest. She helps leadership evaluate legal issues within the broader context of business strategy.
