No. 5: Deborah Hays

Law Power 50

June 24, 2019 4:59 am

Deborah Hays is a partner and shareholder in Archer & Greiner‘s Haddonfield office. Most recently she was appointed chair of Archer’s board of directors. The firm’s first female attorney to assume that role, Hays will begin her five-year term on Oct. 1.

With over 25 years of experience in corporate finance law, Hays is sought-after for her strategic planning abilities. Her clients admire her knowledge, experience and ability to cut straight to the essence of a particular challenge and look for solutions, and she has greatly affected commerce in South Jersey and surrounding areas.

Hays is by definition a trailblazer in a profession where women have made significant progress, yet are still vastly underrepresented as shareholders and directors.

She was the first woman to serve as chair of Archer’s Finance Committee, one of the firm’s most important committees, responsible for its overall financial health. As the current chair of Archer’s Business Counseling Group, Hays is also the first woman to serve as head of a practice group at the firm.

Hays routinely represents clients in mergers and acquisitions with experience in transactions involving public companies, private equity firms, financially distressed sellers, intellectual property assets, Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust compliance, assets located outside of the U.S. and complex licensing and regulatory issues. She has particular expertise in home health care, automobile dealership, vehicle fleet management and consumer products M&A.

In the business community, Hays is a member of, and the first woman to serve as general counsel to the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey. And she is a founding member and first female chair of the board of directors of the Entrepreneurs Forum of Southern New Jersey, a nonprofit professional development organization.