2025 Annual Conference on Legal Issues in Social Entrepreneurship and Impact Investing—In the US and Beyond
Hosted by the Impact Investing Legal Working Group & the Grunin Center • June 3–4, 2025
New York University School of Law
Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South, New York City
Check out the Grunin Center on Linkedin for updates on the 2025 Conference, and please contact us if you would like to get involved in 2025 Conference planning: grunincenter@gmail.com.
Meet our 2025 Conference Co-Chairs
Ruth Gao, Associate General Counsel for Impact Investments, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Ruth serves as Associate General Counsel for Impact Investments at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Ruth brings a wealth of knowledge to her role, with experiences spanning private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and initial public offerings.
Inspired by a vision to empower social entrepreneurs, Ruth spent a year in Jakarta working for a microfinance institution before attending NYU Law with the goal of understanding how the law may be used to enable change and impact. In 2019, she returned to NYU Law as a Fellow at the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship where she supported the International Transactions Clinic. Her Fellowship deepened her knowledge of the impact investing field and led her to serve as Associate General Counsel at Calvert Impact, a global non-profit investment firm.
Previously, Ruth was in private practice as an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP and O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where she counseled fund managers and limited partners in the forming and raising of and investment in private equity funds. She also maintained an active pro bono practice for various not-for-profits and small businesses.
Ruth's commitment to work with impact coupled with her diverse background and passion for positive change, positions her as a valuable contributor to the legal and impact investment community.
Ruth holds a JD from NYU School of Law and a BBA in Strategy and Accounting with High Distinction from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Leslie Cornell, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Social Finance
Leslie is a Vice President and Deputy General Counsel 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. Leslie leads a team of legal professionals who source and structure innovative, first-of-their-kind transactions that support results-focused social programs across various issue areas, including homelessness, workforce development, and criminal justice.
As counsel with Social Finance, Leslie helps design solutions to complex and novel challenges in the emerging and evolving landscape of impact finance. Leslie leverages her skills in financial structuring and community outreach to collaborate with diverse stakeholders, such as investors, service providers, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and to create and implement effective and sustainable impact finance models. Her passion is to advance the field of impact finance, and she is constantly seeking new ways to push the boundaries of traditional investing and philanthropic models.
Leslie teaches on the topic of impact investing and social entrepreneurship at Georgetown University Law Center and she serves as a board member for the North America regional board of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers (GAIL). She was an awardee of the 2019 Grunin Prize for Law and Social Entrepreneurship, administered by the Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship at NYU School of Law.
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.
Alycia Kellman, General Counsel & CCO, Grounded Capital
Alycia serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Grounded Capital. As General Counsel, Alycia oversees all legal aspects of Grounded Capital’s investment, management and operations activities. As Chief Compliance Officer, she establishes standards and implements compliance procedures throughout the organization. Alycia previously served as Associate General Counsel at New Island Capital Management. She also held the role of Chief Legal Officer & Head of Debt Funds at SunFunder, where she structured impact investment funds focused on scaling solar energy in emerging markets. Alycia received a JD from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in human rights and democratization from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and a BA in political science from Yale University. Alycia enjoys running around Oakland’s Lake Merritt most mornings and exploring the California coast with her family.
The Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship is a global leader in the field of law and social entrepreneurship, dedicated to advancing a global movement that creates new ways for law and lawyers to drive positive change in the world.
The mission of the Grunin Center is to enhance the community of lawyers and legal institutions purposefully engaged in social entrepreneurship, impact investing, and sustainable development, and to accelerate their effective participation in these fields.
To fulfill this mission, the Grunin Center is bridging the gaps between legal practitioners, scholars, educators, and law students, as the Center:
- educates students and lawyers about legal issues arising in these fields;
- leads path-breaking conversations about legal innovations and new legal approaches that advance these fields;
- invests in the success of students who are interested in applying their legal skills to these fields; and
- celebrates the contributions of legal practitioners, scholars, and students to these fields and shares learnings drawn from their contributions.