Shawn M. Riley

Trustee Riley serves as president and chief executive officer of McDonald Hopkins LLC. He oversees 140 attorneys at six office locations. Previously, he led the firm’s Cleveland office.

Riley joined McDonald Hopkins in 1995 and has served in a variety of roles, including founder and head of the firm’s Business Restructuring Services Department, managing partner of the Cleveland office and a member of the firm’s five-person executive committee. In his practice, he has advised clients on strategic alternatives, including acquisitions, sales, mergers, affiliations, refinancings, recapitalizations and restructurings. His clients have ranged from bookstore chains to multifacility hospital systems, with revenue from $10 million to $1.5 billion. Since 2007, he has been recognized as a leading lawyer in Ohio and nationally in the field of restructurings and bankruptcies.

His professional memberships include the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and its Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section, Ohio State Bar Association, Turnaround Management Association and American Bankruptcy Institute.

Riley is active in the Northeast Ohio community. He serves as board chairman of the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross, and he has been on that organization’s board for more than 10 years. He also is a member of the board of trustees for the Cleveland Institute of Music. He previously served on the board of trustees for the Great Lakes Theater Festival, the board of trustees for Apollo’s Fire and the finance committee of St. Francis of Assisi in Gates Mills. From 2002 to 2011, Riley served as a member of the village council in Gates Mills. From 2011 to 2015, he served as mayor of Gates Mills.

He is an alumnus of Kent State, receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1983. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1986.