Elizabeth a partner and head of shareholder engagement and activism defense in New York. Leza focuses on activism and takeover defense preparedness and corporate governance matters. She also advises on debt and equity capital markets transactions, including IPOs, SPACs and de-SPACs.

Leza advises boards of directors and management on governance and crisis management, including stakeholder engagement; board and disclosure issues, including director independence, board and committee structure, securities law compliance, board leadership structures, board composition, listing standards, shareholder proposals, annual meetings; sustainability trends and ESG issues; proxy season trends; and succession planning, among other governance matters. 

Leza is a recognized thought leader on governance and activism matters and was appointed to the editorial board of Corporate Governance Advisor. She has appeared on CNBC to discuss activism trends and Thomson Reuters Practical Law to discuss climate change requirements. For the past three years, Leza co-hosted Freshfields’ annual post-proxy season event with leading institutional investors to demystify investor views and expectations on sustainability disclosure and reporting requirements with hundreds of public company clients. She also regularly chairs a panel at Corporate Board Member’s Boardroom Summit on shareholder activism and engagement trends. She is the co-editor of Freshfields’ annual Board Memo, co-host of our webcast series on governance and disclosure updates and co-host of our governance podcast series. Leza is the only lawyer in the United States ranked as a “Rising Star” for corporate governance and is a key member of the Tier 1 corporate governance group, both as ranked by Legal 500.