Author

Professional coach, attorney, mediator, speaker, and facilitator with deep expertise in labor and employment law, professional coaching, and conflict management. In her latest venture, Co.lab Coaching & Legal Services, Elizabeth applies knowledge, experience, skills and accumulated wisdom to transform lives and workplaces through coaching (professional, team, and conflict coaching).

She collaborates with individuals and teams to identify and overcome obstacles, build resilience, unlock their power, experience the satisfaction of conscious choice, build calm, respectful relationships and reach their full potential.

For more than 25 years, Fortune 100 companies, start-ups and individuals have turned to Elizabeth for strategic advice, training, executive coaching, compliance expertise, and cool-headed advocacy in workplace disputes. She has built successful employment law functions from the ground up, serving as an in-house attorney, trusted advisor and innovative problem solver at Airbnb, Williams-Sonoma, and Waste Management. At Airbnb, Elizabeth built the labor and employment law and HR compliance functions. She drafted Airbnb’s first employee Code of Ethics, developed the Ethics & Integrity program, co-founded Wisdom@, an employee resource group for employees over 40, and was appointed to the esteemed Core Values Team. At Williams-Sonoma, she managed the labor and employment law function for eight brands, supply chain, stores and global operations. She was the employment law strategist for the company’s global expansion, and built the company’s first HR compliance team. At Waste Management, she established the Group Employment Counsel role for a 10,000-employee region. She developed and led the roll-out of a company-wide proprietary information protection program. Elizabeth has also served as interim in-house counsel for Intuit, Inc. and BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., had a successful law practice, and was a labor and employment litigator for two national law firms.

Prior to practicing law, Elizabeth was an oncology nurse at California Pacific Medical Center. She held leadership positions on several committees, including the Ethics Review Board, managed Phase 1 clinical trials, taught coping skills to patients and helped to launch the Bone Marrow Transplant Program.

Elizabeth is a member of the California Bar Association, Mediators Beyond Borders, and Community Board Program, Inc.. She is a frequent presenter, moderator, and panelist at public and private conferences. She has served as an advisor to Callisto, a nonprofit company developing technology to combat sexual assault and coercion. She currently serves on the University of San Francisco School of Law Board of Governors.

She earned a law degree from the University of San Francisco and an undergraduate degree from Duke University. She completed coaching certification training with the Coaches Training Institute and is a certified mediator.