ELISE PAEFFGEN is a Senior Associate at Alston & Bird LLP where she focuses her practice on compliance counseling and enforcement defense. Elise works with manufacturers, importers, and forward and reverse distributors to effectively navigate EPA, FDA, and DEA regulations and minimize enforcement risks. She provides counsel to FDA-regulated clients, such as pharmaceutical, medical device, cosmetic, and food manufacturers, on issues ranging from current good manufacturing practices (CGMP) to the management of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals. Elise has spent months inside pharmaceutical manufacturing and reverse distribution facilities in the U.S. and Europe managing EPA and FDA inspections and enforcement matters and implementing significant remedial action.

In addition to a J.D., magna cum laude, from Vermont Law School, Elise earned a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. During her joint degree program, Elise worked for the U.S. EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. Elise received a B.A. in environmental studies and politics from Oberlin College, and was awarded high honors.

Elise has been named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” each year since 2014. She has also been named to the 2017 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll by the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center.