Bethani Oppenheimer

Associate, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

40 Under 40 Category: Legal Services

Biography:

Bethani is an associate in the Financial Institutions practice group of the Atlanta office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP, where she works closely with a team of dedicated professionals representing banks, private equity funds, and other financial institutions and companies in a variety of financing transactions.  While Bethani is one of the newest members of the team, her dedication to the firm and its clients have already made their mark and contributed to the practice group’s success. 

She graduated magna cum laude from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and started her business career at a local commercial real estate developer’s office in her home town of Atlanta.  In short order, her responsibilities blossomed and she soon found herself serving as the director of human resources and managing all of the compliance initiatives for the firm’s brokerage, construction, and property management divisions.  That work, coupled with her life-long quest for learning and an untiring desire for challenging work, inspired her to follow a long-held, but seldom-mentioned dream of becoming a lawyer. 

Unable to afford the luxury of attending school full-time, she enrolled in the evening program at the Georgia State University College of Law.  Four years later, she graduated cum laude.  Originally, Bethani intended to return to her former employer to assume the mantle of in-house counsel, but could not let the opportunity slip by when she received an offer from Greenberg Traurig. What she enjoys most about her position with Greenberg is the time spent working closely with partners and clients in developing solutions to intricate and complex problems.  The last decade has been a challenging one for new lawyers, so she considers herself lucky to have landed a position with such a prestigious firm and, even more, so to have landed with a select group of senior professionals who have shared so much of their time in mentoring and training her. 

Almost since the day she joined Greenberg Traurig, Bethani has been involved with the Commercial Finance Association.  At the local chapter level, Bethani is the vice president of the Atlanta YoPro group, planning local events for younger SFNet members, and assisting with fundraising and sponsorship efforts.  At the national level, she is a member of the Women in Commercial Finance Committee and helped in launching an online community and social media presence for the Committee. 

When informed she was one of the SFNet 40 Under 40 recipients, Bethani said, “Being a part of the SFNet has provided me with amazing opportunities to get involved in the finance community and added a level of enrichment to my career as a finance attorney.  To be honored by the SFNet as one of its 40 Under 40 is humbling, especially considering the wealth of incredibly talented practitioners I have encountered so far in my career.”

Tim Bratcher, the shareholder at Greenberg Traurig who nominated Bethani, said, “We are proud of Bethani’s accomplishments in having been selected as one of SFNet’s 40 Under 40, but we know she has earned it.  She brings a measure of dedication, savvy, and practical knowledge to our finance practice that is virtually unparalleled among her peers.”