In a lifetime as a corporate lawyer, Sarah B. Gelb ’90 has built a reputation for being knowledgeable, fair-minded, loyal, and deeply committed to the people around her. One colleague calls Gelb “a steady hand,” while another describes her “calm confidence,” and over all that time, she’s only changed firms once.
In 1988, after finishing her 1L year at Cornell Law, Gelb began work as a summer associate at the headquarters of Dechert. She returned the next summer, and after passing the bar exam in 1990, she accepted a full-time position as an mergers and acquisitions associate, working ten years as an attorney and twenty-one years as a partner in the firm’s Corporate and Securities practice. Then in January 2022, after readjusting to the post-pandemic world, Gelb moved to Willkie Farr & Gallagher, becoming a partner in the Corporate & Financial Services Department and a member of the Finance Department, splitting her time between working in midtown Manhattan and at her condo in Philadelphia, where her windows overlook Washington Square Park.
“Even though I loved Dechert, at the end of the day, a change made sense for me,” says Gelb, taking a break after a morning spent drafting a loan agreement and advising two associates on the best approach to take with their clients. “Willkie is such a great fit, it seems almost too good to be true. I still focus on middle-market private equity, but I’m doing so many things that are different, things that are completely outside what I’ve done in the past. I think it’s good for everybody to be in that position —it really does keep you sharp. I am able to see how comfortable I’d become, and I now am able to expand my horizons.”
Growing up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Gelb’s horizons stretched as far as an education could take her. Her mother, who couldn’t afford to go to college, made sure her children understood the importance of a degree, and her father made sure they could go to the school of their choice. Gelb is the youngest of four daughters—one sister earned an M.B.A. and Gelb’s other two sisters earned J.D.s and one of them is a judge. Gelb attended a public high school, studying hard and following her second-oldest sister to Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences.
Gelb started Cornell with “a bit of an underdog mentality,” the feeling she’d come from a different place from the rest of her classmates given her high school hadn’t offered Advanced Placement credits. She finished as a College Scholar, concentrating on history and economics before deciding law was the logical next step. (“She was conscientious, focused, and totally dedicated to what she was doing,” says Hon. Amy J. St. Eve ’90, who spent many hours with Gelb as a fellow undergrad, law student, and Pi Beta Phi sorority sister. “She still is.”)
Attending Cornell Law back in an era when the curriculum concentrated on litigation, Gelb discovered she loved Contracts, where she was cold called on the first day of class, and later became a teaching assistant and research assistant for Robert A. Hillman. (“I adore Professor Hillman,” says Gelb, who also names John Barceló, Anne Lukingbeal, and Stewart Schwab as important mentors. “She was an excellent student and a great research assistant, with impressive communication skills and analytical abilities,” says Hillman ’72, the Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law Emeritus.) From Contracts, Gelb found her way to a lifelong career in Big Law, where she’s focused on domestic and cross-border financing transactions for varied clients including secured financings, acquisition financings, recapitalizations, and debt restructurings.
“I like being busy, and I like being challenged,” says Gelb. “I enjoy building teams and making sure folks who are working with me know they’re going to be stretched but supported. The work is fast paced. It’s complex. There’s an assumption you’re going to get good results for your clients, and our job is to deliver.”
In one recent transaction, Gelb worked on a $1.9 billion senior credit facility for Maximus, a government services company with operations in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States. In another, she represented B&G Foods in the refinancing of its credit facility and issuance of $550 million in senior secured notes; and in a third, she counseled one of her private-equity clients on multiple concurrent acquisition financings.
“There’s satisfaction in doing a job well,” says Gelb. “In knowing you can execute, in understanding what’s most important to your clients, in making sure they’re reaching their goals—and at the same time, in appreciating everyone for the contributions they make to your team. It’s all tied into the concept of supporting people, which is something I learned from my family growing up.”
Along the way, Gelb has more than earned her reputation. “She’s proven to be someone who really enjoys a challenge, even when it means jumping into a situation she’s never handled before,” says Viktor Okasmaa, LL.M. ’03, co-chair of Willkie’s Finance Practice Group. “That speaks to her confidence, to the depth of her experience, and to the rapport she’s built with associates. They seek out her counsel, and they want to work with her, because she’s so good at the three things that are key for our business: recruiting the best people, training them, and retaining them.”
In other leadership roles, Gelb has chaired the Business Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association, been named a Leadership Philadelphia Fellow, served as a contributing editor to Acquisition Finance and been recommended multiple times by Legal 500 and IFLR1000. In her work as pro bono counsel, she’s partnered with MetLife, Pfizer, and Bloomberg to help low-income transgender New Yorkers change their legal names, and participated in initiatives for election protection, guardianship of disabled adults, claims under the Violence Against Women Act, and landlord-tenant issues.
At Cornell Law, Gelb is currently a member of the Alumni Board of Directors and the Women’s Alliance Leadership Committee (formerly the Mary Kennedy Brown Society), and in the past year, she became the founder of a student scholarship. “From the outside, I am successful,” she says. “But the moment I felt the most successful was when I set up the scholarship in my parents’ names. As a scholarship student, I felt a moral obligation to give back, to help somebody who’s in the same circumstance I was, and to make sure Cornell continues to be the quality institution it was for me. For me, it comes back to honoring your parents and being grateful for everything you have. It was such a proud moment when I showed my mother the first letter from her scholarship recipient. It doesn’t get any better than that.”
~Kenny Berkowitz
