History

It all started with a call from a former colleague looking for a seasoned and affordable alternative to outside general counsel services for a 250-year old non-profit organization. “If I need this, others need it,” she said. And so, the firm was was born in 2008. Founding partners Jackie Ewenstein and Abby Young set out to serve the market between pro-bono and large firm services, with top-quality legal counsel at reasonable prices for non-profit organizations. Having trained in the corporate, media and intellectual property departments of a major New York City law firm (with a heavy dose of pro bono work for nonprofits), and then working in-house at Oxygen Media and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, they also wanted to create a firm that would provide a blend of the sophistication of an outside counsel practice and the practical nature of in-house counsel lawyering. In 2011, Stefanie H. Roth, former in-house counsel to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and General Counsel to the World Science Festival, joined the firm to serve its growing clientele. Ms. Young stepped down in 2014 to pursue her passion for public service and has since joined the Charities Bureau of the New York Attorney General’s Office.

Today, led by Ms. Ewenstein & Ms. Roth, Ewenstein & Roth serves a broad range of non-profit and tax-exempt entities, helping them with both one-time projects and on-going legal needs. The firm’s clients represent the diversity of the non-profit and tax-exempt sector, ranging from family to corporate foundations, and start-up public charities with minimal staff to complex multi-million dollar organizations with subsidiaries and international operations.