2025 Symposium Presenters & Commentators

Evan Absher

Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law 

Before joining the UMKC School of Law faculty, Evan Absher designed, created, and implemented a national program that assisted 120 mayors and cities to implement entrepreneurial friendly programs, policies, and practices. This program directed over $120 million into cities to support more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems. This program model has since been adapted by federal agencies, such as the Economic Development Agency and National Science Foundation, to execute large scale programs with local implementation. Professor Absher is also the co-founder of Folks Capital, a consulting company that helps investors, philanthropists, and policymakers grow economic agency through shared ownership. He is a repeat entrepreneur, having started a theatre company in Chicago among other ventures, and is a classically trained actor. He combines his legal and artistic training to develop novel, but practical solutions to entrenched challenges.

Professor Absher earned his BA in Theatre and JD at UMKC and is excited to be grading the tests and not taking them. He believes deeply that the UMKC School of Law offers a unique opportunity to develop useful skills while doing impact work for the community.

Professor Absher teaches Entrepreneurial Urban Development, co-teaches Entrepreneurship & New Venture Creation, assists with the Entrepreneur Legal Services Clinic, and helps run the Entrepreneurship emphasis at the Center for Law, Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Rosemary Addis

Enterprise Professor in Impact, Sustainability, and Innovation, University of Melbourne

Rosemary Addis is a globally recognized director and strategist at the forefront of innovation and  investment for impact. She has led design and execution of ground-breaking investment vehicles, policy  and pioneering organisations shaping market transformation for a more positive, sustainable future.  

Rosemary founded strategy firm Impact Strategist in 2003 and has advised and led on ground breaking  strategies with clients including the World Banking Group, United Nations Development Programme,  OECD Social Impact Investing Initiative, the World Economic Forum, governments and from major banks  to institutional investors, corporations and foundations. She founded Mondiale Impact in 2022, bringing together a global network of expert practitioners to  support and challenge leaders in boardrooms and beyond to confront the new governance realities of  our complex contemporary context.  

Rosemary was appointed an Enterprise Professor at the University of Melbourne and Industry Professor at  University College London. She Chairs University of Melbourne’s flagship initiative, Melbourne Climate  Futures and its Sustainable Finance Hub. She is a Global Ambassador for GSG Impact,.  

Her strategic leadership spans public, private and multi-lateral settings and over 20 years of Board  experience, building on a global legal career ranked as one of the world’s leading lawyers (Chambers  Global). Her 35+ year track record includes bringing new investment funds to market, advising top 100  companies and investment firms, leading major national productivity and financial policy reforms,  driving policy innovation Social Innovation Strategist for the Australian Government and shaping game  changing multi-lateral strategies and initiatives including as a member of the G8 Social Impact  Investment Taskforce, Trustee of GSG Impact and inaugural chair of its global governance committee,  and Founding Chair of Impact Investing Australia (Market Builder of the Year 2018 and 2020).  

In 2020 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and has also been recognized as an inaugural Sorenson Impact Leader (2021), by Women in Finance ranking among top thought leaders  (2017), Australia’s 100 Women of Influence for contributions to innovation (2015) and by Chambers Global  as one of the world’s leading lawyers (2002 and 2003). Rosemary’s work is published widely and is the subject of international case studies. She has an LLB  (Hons 1st Class, 1990), New York Bar (1995), Company Directors’ Diploma (2002).

Anat Alon-Beck

Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Anat Alon-Beck is a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School. She was a Jacobson fellow at NYU Law School.

 

 

Andrea Armeni

Associate Clinical Professor of Social Finance and Public Service, Director of Social Impact, Innovation, and Investment Specialization, New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

Andrea Armeni, Associate Clinical Professor of Social Finance and Public Service, directs the Social Impact, Innovation, and Investment Specialization (SI3) at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. He also serves as the MPA/MBA Faculty Director, as co-director of the university-wide Social Entrepreneurship minor, and leads the student-run NYU Impact Investment Fund (NIIF).

A corporate lawyer by training, Andrea co-founded and directed the think-tank Transform Finance for a decade, exploring how capital can be made more equitable.

His current research focuses on distributed governance and ownership mechanisms at the enterprise level as a fairer alternative to shareholder primacy and on the connection between impact investing strategies and broader transformation of the role of capital in society.  

Andrea holds a BA in analytic philosophy, summa cum laude, from Columbia University and a JD from the Yale Law School.

Leslie Cornell

General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer, Social Finance

Leslie Cornell is general counsel and chief compliance officer at Social Finance, where she leads the legal and compliance functions across the organization’s portfolio of innovative impact investments. As general counsel, she manages a high-performing legal team and advises on complex corporate, financing, and regulatory matters spanning impact advisory services, fund formation, and policy strategy. As chief compliance officer, she oversees the firm’s regulatory obligations as a registered investment adviser and builds pragmatic compliance frameworks that enable mission-driven innovation.

Leslie is also an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University Law Center, where she co-teaches a course on social enterprise, impact investing, and the law. She was a recipient of the 2019 Grunin Prize for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, administered by New York University School of Law, and currently serves as a regional board member for Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers (GAIL) North America.

A trusted advisor and field builder, Leslie is recognized for advancing innovative legal and financial structures that mobilize capital for social impact, and for cultivating collaborative, solutions-oriented legal teams.

Jesse Gero

Adjunct Professor of Clinical Law, Acting Director of the International Transactions Clinic, Senior Legal Fellow of the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, New York University School of Law

Jesse Gero is an adjunct professor of clinical law at NYU Law, acting director of NYU Law’s International Transactions Clinic, and senior legal fellow of NYU Law’s Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining NYU Law, Jesse served as associate general counsel at the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). There, Jesse was one of the principal architects of the program in which DFC uses political risk insurance to unlock capital markets transactions, oversaw the legal work for that program, and served in similar oversight roles for DFC's Office of Health & Agribusiness and Office of Development Credit. Before turning to public service, Jesse worked in international project finance from the Paris office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and in corporate lending and structured finance from the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Jesse is a member of the New York and Paris bars and holds a JD from the NYU Law.

John Patrick Hunt

Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law, University of California, Davis School of Law

John Patrick Hunt is a Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law (King Hall). He has published in a number of areas relating to law and finance, including credit rating agencies, mortgage securitization, municipal bankruptcy, student loan bankruptcy, and green finance. His work on green bonds is published or forthcoming in the Columbia Business Law Review and the University of Illinois Law Review.

John teaches Contracts, Bankruptcy, and Business Fundamentals for Lawyers.  He is a member of the American Law Institute.

Jill Manny

Executive Director of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law, New York University School of Law

Professor Jill Manny joined the faculty at New York University School of Law in 1993 as a Visiting Assistant Professor.  In June of 1995, she assumed the additional position of Executive Director of the National Center on Philanthropy and the Law at New York University School of Law.  She teaches courses on the Law of Nonprofit Organizations, Tax-Exempt Organizations, Tax Aspects of Charitable Giving, and Private Foundations and Their Alternatives.  She is the 2022-2023 Podell Distinguished Teacher Award winner at NYU School of Law and the 2019 recipient of the Nonprofit Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association, Business Law Section, Outstanding Lawyer Award in the Academic Category.  

Professor Manny is a member of the American Law Institute where she served as an adviser on the Restatement of the Law of Charitable Nonprofit Organizations.  She served as a member of the Independent Sector Panel on the Nonprofit Sector which issued the Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice (2015).  She is a member of the American Bar Association Exempt Organizations Committee.

Professor Manny received a BA Summa Cum Laude from Barnard College, Columbia University, and a JD from Columbia Law School.

Nizan Geslevich Packin

Professor of Law, Baruch College

Nizan Geslevich Packin is a professor of Law at the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College, City University of New York, and at the University of Haifa Faculty of Law. She is also an ECGI Research Member, and an affiliated faculty at the ISLC - Information Society Law Center at the University of Milan.

 

 

 

 

Kara McCarthy Perry

Part-Time Clinical Professor, Quinnipiac University School of Law and Seton Hall School of Law

Kara McCarthy Perry, JD, is an integrative lawyer, educator, speaker, and consultant who helps professionals navigate high-stress work with clarity, purpose, and well-being. After two decades as a corporate healthcare attorney, she saw how conventional contracting and high-pressure dealmaking can drive results yet drain resilience. Now an adjunct professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, she co-teaches the Integrative Law Approach to Negotiation clinic and serves as a Senior Fellow with the school’s Center for Dispute Resolution through its Project for Integrative Law in Legal Education. At Seton Hall, she teaches Student Wellness & Mindfulness. A Conscious Contracts® practitioner, Kara helps clients design values-centered agreements that foster trust and resilience. As founder of Just Brilliant LLC, she blends law, yoga, and mindfulness to help organizations integrate more purpose, joy, and alignment into their work. She also holds leadership roles with the Institute for Well-Being in Law and the Mindfulness in Law Society.

Naveen Thomas

Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

Naveen Thomas is an assistant professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches courses in contracts, corporations, and other subjects in business law. His scholarship addresses contract design, contract theory, corporate governance, and social enterprise.

Before joining Brooklyn Law School, Professor Thomas taught at the law schools of the University of Chicago and New York University, where he directed transactional clinics and designed simulation courses in contract drafting and negotiation.

Professor Thomas began his legal career at Shearman & Sterling in New York, focusing on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance. He later founded a New York law firm named Thomas Law. Throughout his career, he has represented multinational corporations, nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, impact investors, startup companies, and small businesses across a broad range of legal matters. 

Professor Thomas holds a BA in Philosophy and Economics from NYU, a JD from Columbia Law School, and a Master of Global Business Law from Sciences Po Paris and the Sorbonne Law School. He speaks English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

J. Kim Wright

Affiliated Law Faculty, Quinnipiac University School of Law

J. Kim Wright, JD, Senior Fellow and Clinical Professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, is co-creator of the Conscious Contracts® process. An author, contributor, and co-editor of several ABA books, she has pioneered integrative, values-based approaches to law worldwide. Wright’s work bridges social impact, entrepreneurship, and legal innovation, fostering resilience, alignment, and emotional intelligence in legal agreements and organizational life.  She is a core team member of TEDLaw, a central figure in the Integrative Law Movement and practicing attorney in Burlington, North Carolina.