Elliott Portnoy

Who is Elliott Portnoy?

Elliott I. Portnoy is an American attorney and the Global Chief Executive Officer of Dentons—a law firm that launched March 28, 2013 with the combination of US/UKMEA firm SNR Denton, Canada's Fraser Milner Casgrain and Europe's Salans.

Portnoy was previously the chief executive of SNR Denton, a combination between Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP and Denton Wilde Sapte. At 41 when he took over as chairman of Sonnenschein, he was the youngest partner to serve in the role and the first outside Chicago, where that firm was founded in 1906. As chairman, he oversaw the growth of Sonnenschein to nearly 800 lawyers and other professionals, including the addition of 100 new attorneys from Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP on Jan. 1, 2009. Consistent with Portnoy's vision of business growth to address the globalization of client needs, his leadership transformed Sonnenschien from its Chicago-based roots into the global 2,500 lawyer law firm it is today.

Prior to assuming the Sonnenschein chairmanship, Portnoy was chair of the firm's Public Law & Policy Strategies Group, which he founded in 2002.