Yelena is a Partner & SVP at Woodruff Sawyer, one of the largest independent insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the US. She advises clients on M&A- and IPO-related insurance solutions, including representations and warranties insurance (RWI) and D&O insurance for public companies and SPACs.

Yelena is a frequent speaker and author, featured in many publications including S&P Global, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, Investment News Today, Business Law Today, Law360, CFO.com, Business Journal and Bloomberg. She won the JD Supra top author award in M&A in 2023 and 2022. Yelena also serves as the M&A managing editor of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Today and is the executive editor of the SPAC Notebook, a blog series that covers SPACs and SPAC risks.

In 2022, Yelena was named in Insurance Business America's "Hot 100," which lists top professionals whose contributions have helped shape the insurance industry.

Prior to Woodruff Sawyer, Yelena practiced as a senior capital markets associate at Clifford Chance and a corporate associate at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae (later Dewey & LeBoeuf) and earned her BS in Economics from Cornell University and her JD from Fordham University School of Law.