Ropes & Gray Appoints Seasoned M&A Lawyer as General Counsel and Partner

Ropes & Gray announced today that Adele Maloney has joined the firm as partner and general counsel, based in New York. Adele joins from Paul Hastings, where she served as general counsel and directed the firm's global risk management function.

“The general counsel role at a firm like ours demands exceptional judgment, discretion, and real business acumen. You have to make important decisions — legal and business, often simultaneously — and you have to be someone firm leadership trusts completely. Adele is that person. She spent years advising clients on deals and then brought that practitioner's perspective to running risk at a global law firm,” said Julie Jones, chair of Ropes & Gray. “With Adele here, our lawyers can continue to stay focused on our clients, confident that the firm is well protected.”

In her prior role as general counsel, Adele directed global risk management across all offices. Before that, she spent eight years at Kirkland & Ellis as a partner in the Office of General Counsel, advising on professional responsibility, ethics, and loss prevention, and earlier as an M&A and private equity partner.

“Ropes & Gray's high-performance culture and commitment to both its clients and colleagues are what drew me to the firm,” said Adele. “I've spent my career advising clients on complex transactions and helping law firms navigate their own toughest challenges, so I recognized immediately how high Ropes & Gray sets the bar, and I knew this was where I wanted to build the next chapter of my career.”

Adele serves as a board member of Esther’s Friends, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that supports children facing long-term hospitalizations, as well as their families. She received her J.D., with high honors, from The George Washington University Law School, and her B.A. from Tufts University.

Adele succeeds Peter Erichsen, who will retire at the end of 2026. Peter began his Ropes & Gray career in 1981, became partner in 1990, and after holding senior roles outside the firm in government, higher education, and cultural institutions, returned in 2007. Peter became general counsel in 2020.