Leslie Cornell

Leslie Cornell is General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Social Finance.  As General Counsel, she manages the legal team across the organization’s portfolio of impact investments, and advises on a range of corporate, impact advisory and policy and regulatory matters. As Chief Compliance Officer, she is responsible for ensuring compliance with Social Finance’s obligations as a registered investment adviser.

Leslie is an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University Law Center. She was an awardee of the 2019 Grunin Prize for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, administered by the New York University School of Law and is a current co-chair for the Annual Grunin Conference on Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing. In 2023 and 2024, she was elected to be a regional board member of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers (GAIL) North America.

Leslie holds a B.S. in Media Arts and Sciences and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she was a Civic Leadership Fellow. She graduated cum laude from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Building first-of-their-kind impact finance products is an exercise in collaboration, creativity and persistence. I’m challenged and invigorated by this work every day.