Gretchen has more than 20 years of experience advising Fortune 500 companies on commercial contracts matters both domestically and abroad. Eleven of those years were spent as General Counsel to the commercial business of a large aerospace manufacturer where she acted as a trusted legal advisor on all legal, contracts and trade compliance matters impacting the business. Most recently, Gretchen held the role of Director of Compliance for a large components manufacturer to the aerospace and industrial sectors where she advised senior management on compliance matters (with a focus on employment, trade compliance and corporate governance matters) and commercial contracts.

As an in-house lawyer, Gretchen gained extensive experience drafting and negotiating commercial agreements across industries, including the aerospace, industrial, and energy sectors. In those in-house roles, she partnered closely with her corporate colleagues on contracting and risk mitigation strategies, from deal inception and strategizing to final “delivery” of product and services.

In aerospace, Gretchen has worked with domestic and international customers across the world, including heads of state, international government agencies, foreign procurement agencies, and foreign militaries to facilitate the sale and support of commercial helicopters to those entities. In support of those transactions, Gretchen has worked closely with lenders, leasing companies, and regulatory authorities (including the FAA and the U.S. Department of State) to negotiate and obtain approvals, authorizations, licensing, and other supporting documentation to enable those sales. She has also prepared and advised on requests for proposals and related supporting documentation, including bid and performance bonds, parent guarantees and other financial instruments utilized in support of procurement activities. While it is always the goal to be successful in these transactions, in some cases disputes did arise and Gretchen was responsible for creating and briefing settlement strategies to senior management, and for drafting and negotiating settlement agreements with customers so that business could proceed forward.

Gretchen’s experience as a General Counsel has given her tremendous insight into the myriad of challenges facing any competitive business – including the need to find solutions quickly and cost effectively, while best protecting the company from legal, financial, and business risk. Gretchen calls this “making the magic happen” and attributes her success over the years to her communication style, her adaptability to rapidly changing circumstances, her creativity in finding solutions where others could not, and her tenacity in driving transactions to closure.

Gretchen is mom to three (human) children and two (canine) kids, all of whom bring tremendous joy to the journey. If she is not doing mom work or contracts work, Gretchen can usually be found on the golf course (encountering even more challenges).

BAR ADMISSIONS*

• Connecticut

EDUCATION

• Syracuse University College of Law, 2000 (summa cum laude)
• Bucknell University, Bachelor of Arts, 1992

* Ms. Maton is not admitted to practice in New York.