Douglas Ellis, who practiced as Douglass N. Ellis Jr., was an American lawyer and corporate partner at Ropes & Gray in Boston. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1972, served as the firm's chair from 1999 to 2004, and helped steer its growth into a national law firm.
Background
Douglass N. Ellis Jr. completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia and then attended Boston College Law School. Between those academic stages and his entry into the Boston legal profession, he completed military service.
His professional life was based in Massachusetts from the start of his legal career. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1972, the same year he received his law degree, and he began work at a Boston firm that had been established nearly a century earlier.
Education
Ellis received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in 1965. The university was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was designed around Jefferson's conception of public education in support of self-government.
He then studied at Boston College Law School, where he earned a Juris Doctor in 1972. Boston College was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1863 and opened in 1864, and its law school was formally organized in 1929 as the institution's first graduate program. The law school moved to the Chestnut Hill campus in 1954 and relocated to its Newton campus in August 1975, so it was still at Chestnut Hill during Ellis's years there.
He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1972, the same year he completed the Juris Doctor.
Career
Ellis joined Ropes & Gray in 1972, after completing military service, and remained with the firm for a career of about 36 years. Ropes & Gray was founded in Boston in 1865 by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, both Harvard Law School graduates, and it is one of the oldest law firms in the United States. By the 1960s the firm had grown to nearly 75 attorneys, and in 1961 it readopted the name Ropes & Gray after several decades under longer partnership names.
In 1981 Ellis became a corporate partner in the firm's investment management practice group, and he later served as the firm's hiring partner. His work in the Corporate Department covered investment management, mergers and acquisitions, insurance, securities and public offerings, and venture-capital arrangements.
By March 2001 he was serving as managing partner, at a time when the firm was building a major practice in intellectual property, life sciences, and technology law. He served as chair of Ropes & Gray from 1999 to 2004, a period in which the firm was moving from a New England legal institution toward an elite national firm.
In 2003 the firm combined with Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard, a New York City-based private equity law firm. The combination expanded Ropes & Gray's New York presence and strengthened its private equity and litigation practices. Ellis retired from the firm in 2008 and died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 82.
Achievements
Played an instrumental role, as chair of Ropes & Gray from 1999 to 2004, in the firm's evolution from a New England legal institution into an elite national firm.
Led the firm's 2003 combination with Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt & Maynard, a move that expanded Ropes & Gray's New York presence and bolstered its private equity and litigation practices.
Membership
Ellis was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1972 and is recorded as a member of three bar associations from that year. The Massachusetts Bar Association is the statewide voluntary association of lawyers in Massachusetts, the American Bar Association is the national professional organization of American lawyers, and the Boston Bar Association serves attorneys practicing in the Boston area.
Massachusetts Bar Association
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United States
1972
American Bar Association
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United States
1972
Boston Bar Association
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United States
1972
Personality
Ropes & Gray's remembrance of him described a person of great warmth, known for a dry sense of humor and for his ability to earn the loyalty and respect of clients and colleagues. The firm also described him as a friend and mentor to many of its lawyers.
Quotes from others about the person
Julie Jones, chair of Ropes & Gray, said that Doug loved the firm and its people 'like few others.'
References
In Memoriam: Douglass Ellis
Ropes & Gray's announcement of the death of its former firm chair, describing his career at the firm, his leadership from 1999 to 2004, and his mentorship of colleagues.
2024
Douglass N. Ellis Jr. – Ropes & Gray biography
The firm's biography of Ellis as a retired partner, listing his education at the University of Virginia and Boston College Law School, his joining the firm in 1972, his partnership in 1981, and his retirement in 2008.
Douglass N. Ellis, Jr – Martindale-Hubbell profile
A legal directory profile recording his retired partner status at Ropes & Gray, his education at the University of Virginia and Boston College Law School, and his Massachusetts admission in 1972.
