Leslie Cornell

(She, her, hers)

Vice President, Deputy General Counsel & Policy Advisor

2018

Operations
Impact Investing

Leslie Cornell is a Vice President and the Deputy General Counsel & Policy Advisor at Social Finance. She manages the legal team across SFI’s portfolio of Impact Investments, advises the senior team with respect to policy and regulatory priorities, and supports the General Counsel in developing organizational strategy and overseeing corporate legal matters.

She was an awardee of the 2019 Grunin Prize for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, administered by the New York University School of Law. 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.