Edward Olifer Bio

Ed Olifer is the Managing Partner of the firm's Washington, D.C. office, and is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee (its board of directors). As a member of Kilpatrick’s Financial Institutions team, Ed advises executive management teams and boards of directors on myriad sensitive, legal-related and other strategic decisions that impact their businesses and constituents. He represents a variety of companies in the financial services industry, including public and private financial institutions, mutual financial institutions and mutual holding companies, and investment banking firms. Having worked with financial institutions since the 1990s through numerous economic cycles, he is able to identify and tailor strategies to address the broad spectrum of transactional, corporate governance, and bank regulatory and compliance issues with which his clients are presented. Ed has led or co-led many of the Financial Institutions Team’s merger and acquisition and capital-raising transactions for which the firm has been consistently recognized, including national practice area recognition by Chambers USA (2014–2023). Ed counsels public clients on a daily basis with respect to their reporting obligations under the federal securities laws, including a broad range of securities regulations applicable to corporations, officers, directors, and shareholders of public corporations, including share re-sale restrictions, Section 16, and insider-trading matters. He frequently represents issuers and underwriters in initial and secondary public securities offerings, including public and private debt and/or equity transactions, and advises clients regarding federal and state charter selection and conversion options and with their conversion to stock form. The path to Ed’s career began with his earning one of the few available law degrees that required completion of a three-year corporate and securities law specialty track program. His law school studies were augmented by an internship in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of General Counsel and a clerkship in the Office of General Counsel at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Ed was recommended by Legal 500 US in 2022, 2023 and 2024 for Mergers & Acquisitions. In 2021, he was named to the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll, which recognizes the contributions of those D.C. Bar members who donated 50 hours or more of pro bono service during the previous calendar year.