Sheila Tendy
Sheila Tendy advises corporations, not-for-profits, boards and business owners on the legal and strategic issues affecting their operations and growth. Serving as outside and fractional general counsel, Ms. Tendy works closely with organizational leadership on corporate governance, contract negotiations, employment matters, real estate and construction matters, regulatory compliance, internal investigations, operational risk, and civil litigation. Her approach is practical: legal advice should advance the client’s objectives while protecting the organization from unnecessary financial, operational, and reputational exposure.
Ms. Tendy is an experienced civil litigator and strategic negotiator who represents clients in complex commercial and organizational disputes. She is frequently retained when a matter requires a clear assessment of risk, leverage, and available options. Whether the appropriate strategy involves early intervention, negotiated resolution, litigation or engagement with a government authority, Ms. Tendy helps clients protect their interests while remaining focused on the broader needs of the organization.
Her business and litigation practice is informed by decades of experience across law enforcement, financial regulation, financial markets, and investigative consulting. Ms. Tendy began her legal career as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and later served as counsel to the New York State Department of Financial Services. She also worked in the equities divisions of S.G. Warburg and Deutsche Bank, gaining firsthand experience with the operations and commercial realities of global financial institutions.
At the Department of Financial Services, Ms. Tendy oversaw complex investigations involving foreign and domestic financial institutions, senior insiders, money laundering, foreign exchange trading, foreign corrupt practices, loan fraud, concealed trading losses, and stock manipulation. She also helped establish a multi-agency mortgage fraud task force. Ms. Tendy practices regularly before the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
Ms. Tendy subsequently led the Banking and Financial Services Group of an international investigative consulting firm, where she advised banks and other financial institutions on independent investigations, regulatory compliance, anti-money laundering programs, risk management, and interactions with regulators and law enforcement.
This cross-disciplinary background enables Ms. Tendy to evaluate matters and identify not only the immediate legal issue, but also the broader business, financial, regulatory, operational, and reputational consequences of a client’s decisions.
Ms. Tendy is President of the Irish American Bar Association of New York and President of the Riot Relief Fund, a nonprofit founded in 1863 that provides financial assistance to the families of New York City police officers and firefighters killed in the line of duty.
Ms. Tendy has been selected as a New York Super Lawyer from 2013 through 2026 and has been recognized among the Top Women Attorneys in the New York Metro Area from 2014 through 2026. Ms. Tendy is also a recipient of the City Bar Justice Center’s Jeremy G. Epstein Award for Pro Bono Service and the Irish American Bar Association’s Wild Goose Award.
Ms. Tendy has written extensively on legal, business, financial, and public-policy issues. Her work has appeared in the New York Law Journal, American Banker, Mortgage Banking Magazine, The Huffington Post, and publications of the New York State Bar Association.
Ms. Tendy’s matters have been featured in the Netflix series Bad Vegan and the New York Times bestseller Chasing Evil.
Consider what might happen if a multibillion-dollar hedge fund suddenly found its huge portfolio of mortgage-backed securities was filled with bad paper. If it could not absorb the losses, the federal government and ultimately the tax payers, might be forced into a bailout, or the fund’s failure could launch a destructive tsunami that drowns the economy.”
— Protecting Wholesalers from Fraud, Mortgage Banking Magazine
Sheila Tendy, December 1998