Alyson Gal

Education

Gal studied at Knox College, a private liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1982. Knox was founded in 1837 by anti-slavery reformers led by George Washington Gale under the name Knox Manual Labor College, and it was renamed Knox College in 1857. The college opened to students in 1843 and was among the earliest colleges to admit both Black people and women.

Gal later earned a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1988. Harvard Law School is among the oldest law schools in the United States, and its professional degree prepared graduates for admission to the bar. The Boston law firm that later employed her, Ropes & Gray, had been founded in 1865 by two Harvard Law School graduates, which places her legal training within the same Boston and Harvard legal tradition.

Career

After being admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1988, Gal built her legal career at Ropes & Gray LLP in Boston, where she became a partner and is now listed as a retired partner. The firm was founded in Boston in 1865 by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, both Harvard Law School graduates. It began with individual and Harvard University clients, and after William Loring joined in 1878 it moved toward corporate law, serving railroad clients. By the 1960s it had grown to nearly 75 attorneys, and its bankruptcy practice had developed during the Great Depression.

Gal's practice focused on finance and capital markets. A firm profile identifies her as a capital solutions partner, and her published work addresses credit facilities for registered investment funds and developments in the credit default swap market. A credit facility is a lending arrangement under which a lender makes funds available to a borrower, and credit funds are investment vehicles that extend loans to companies.

Chambers USA recognized her work in its rankings for 2017 to 2018 and for 2021 to 2024. Best Lawyers in America later named her Securitization and Structured Finance Law "Lawyer of the Year" in Boston for 2023.

Works

• article

  • CDS 'Net Short' Holder Market Developments

    (Co-authored article published in The New York Law Journal...)

    2019

• book chapter

  • Credit Facilities for Registered Investment Funds

    (Chapter co-authored with Andrew Hogan in ICLG Public Inve...)

    2019

• report

  • Foreign Credit Support for U.S. Credit Facilities

    (Co-authored report issued in the Ropes & Gray Credit Fund...)

    2019

Membership

Gal is associated with the Boston Bar Association, a voluntary association of lawyers practicing in the Boston area that provides continuing legal education, professional networking, and civic engagement for its members. She is also associated with the American Bankruptcy Institute, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 that conducts research and education on insolvency matters and provides non-partisan analysis of bankruptcy legislation for Congress and the public. Both organizations reflect the bankruptcy and business law dimensions of her practice.

• Boston Bar Association , United States

• American Bankruptcy Institute , United States

References

• Alyson Gal, Ropes & Gray biography Firm biography identifying her as a retired partner at Ropes & Gray LLP, with her co-authored publications and her memberships in the American Bankruptcy Institute and Boston Bar Association.
• Alyson Gal, Lexology expert profile Expert profile presenting her as a U.S.-based capital solutions partner at Ropes & Gray LLP, with links to podcasts and commentary on credit funds and loan documentation.
• Alyson Gal, Legal 500 profile Legal 500 profile listing her as a partner in the United States office of Ropes & Gray LLP.