Roxanne E. Makoff

Ms. Makoff practices in the areas of commercial litigation and fiduciary duties, especially related to management, control and operations of private and family business enterprises, business owner buyouts and the management and disposition of complex assets, related negotiations and trial practice. She has experience in litigation and advisory work involving venture capital and private equity funds, mergers and acquisitions, broker-dealer regulation and financial services compensation. Ms. Makoff was appellate co-counsel in two consolidated commercial cases that resulted in total summary judgment for our client in both cases, plus an award of over $318,000 in legal fees, affirmed on appeal (Korchemny v. Piterman, 68 Cal.App.5th 1032 (2021)). Ms. Makoff is the Executive Editor (Updates) and contributed extensive research, writing, and editing to “Litigating and Judging California Business Entity Governance Disputes” (LexisNexis/Matthew Bender 2019), is the co-author of CEB’s Practice Guide on “Understanding Fiduciary Duties in Business Entities” on “Fiduciary Duties in Family Businesses and Transactions” and co-authored an article in the Daily Journal, “The Law and Practice of Litigating Marvin Claims in a Less-Married Millennium.”  

Ms. Makoff received her J.D. in 2017 from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. She graduated from Hamilton College with a Bachelor of Arts in 2012 (Public Policy) and attended St. Paul’s School (New Hampshire). Ms. Makoff was an editor of the Cardozo Law Review with a published Note, Judicial Dissolution Under New York’s Limited Liability Company Law: Should Breaking Up Be This Hard to Do?, 38 Cardozo L. Rev. 1541 (2017). During law school, Ms. Makoff served as an extern for the Honorable Arthur F. Engoron at the New York County Supreme Court and had a summer position with the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C., Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Prior to law school, Ms. Makoff worked as a case clerk at Clyde & Co. U.S. LLP in San Francisco and at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF in New York City.

Ms. Makoff is a member of the State Bar of California and is admitted to practice in all California state courts, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.