Born Ellen Frances Lipton[1] on May 24, 1949, in New York, New York,[2] she received her Bachelor of Arts in 1971 from Goucher College, then attended Hofstra University School of Law during the 1971 – 1972 academic year, but received no degree.

[1] Hollander was in private practice as an associate in the litigation department for the law firm of Frank, Bernstein, Conaway & Goldman in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1975 to 1979.

Between 1983 and 1989, Hollander went back into private practice with Frank, Bernstein, Conaway & Goldman, where she worked her way from an associate to partner.

In June 2009, she submitted a written application to the merit selection committee composed of members of the Maryland Bar Association.

However, Sara Gross, a lawyer for Baltimore, noted that “Judge Hollander has already rejected every single one of the fossil fuel defendants’ arguments, as have federal district court judges in ten other climate damage and deception cases around the country".