Elsa is a Managing Associate in the Private department.
Elsa works for impact-driven organisations and individuals - including charities, foundations, NGOs, impact ventures (such as Community Interest Companies and social enterprises), and philanthropists.
She combines deep charity law and not‑for‑profit expertise with a strong corporate law background. This enables her to advise impact-driven clients on complex, multidisciplinary projects involving governance, regulatory and transactional work, such as charity mergers, spin‑outs, collaborations and joint ventures, commercialisation of IP, structuring, restructurings and impact investment.
Her dual capability makes her a go‑to adviser for charities and other impact-driven clients undertaking strategically significant, innovative and/or technically challenging work.
She also has a particular focus on the climate, nature and biodiversity space and plays a central role in the team’s growing practice advising major international foundations operating in these sectors.
Elsa is an active thought leader in the charity and wider impact sector. She regularly delivers training and workshops across the sector and convenes and speaks at in‑person events exploring emerging topics relevant to the sector.
She is a member of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers and the Charity Law Association. A native French speaker and fluent English and Russian speaker, Elsa supports the team’s international practice and is recognised for her ability to bridge legal, cultural and sectoral boundaries on complex cross‑border projects.
Key Experience
- Advising the commercial arm of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew on the implementation of its programme of research spin-outs with Greensphere Capital's nature-based solutions venture capital fund and climate incubator, aimed at commercialising and scaling the impact of Kew's world-leading research in biodiversity, botanical and fungal science.
- Advising CommonAI C.I.C. on the creation and running of its non-profit collaborative engineering and computing platform and on a funding package of up to £50 million.
- Advising Founders Pledge, a global charity working to improve entrepreneurs' charitable giving, on the legal set-up and launch of Pledge Ventures, a value-aligned venture fund designed to build up a long-term capital endowment for Founders Pledge by investing in high-growth companies whose founders have committed to philanthropy via Founders Pledge.
- Advising on the design and structuring of an innovative place-based impact investment vehicle aimed at reinvigorating disadvantaged local areas by increasing the access of independent local businesses to fair and patient finance.
- Advising a philanthropic foundation on a strategic review and complex restructuring.
- Advising a high-profile UK charity operating in the health and research sector on a number of complex cross‑sector collaborations and transactions.
- Advising several UK charities on their innovative grant-making programmes and the framing of such programmes within their charitable purposes.
- Advising several UK charities and not-for-profits on partnerships/collaborations with private sector organisations.
- Advising a health tech innovation venture on its options for restructuring to increase its funding options and boost its attractiveness to private capital investors.
Career History
Managing Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Associate, Mishcon de Reya LLP
Associate, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
Trainee Solicitor, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
BPP Law School, Legal Practice Course and Graduate Diploma in Law
University College London (UCL), BA (Hons), Politics and East European Studies