Elizabeth C. Leo

Elizabeth has more than 30 years of experience delivering sophisticated legal counsel on complex labor and employment, business, civil litigation, policy development, and regulatory matters across the higher education, healthcare, and corporate sectors, including public and private companies. She is widely regarded as a trusted advisor to executive leadership and boards, with a rare combination of hands-on higher education legal leadership and senior human resources and employment law experience. At Archer, Elizabeth guides higher education clients through compliance, governance and operational issues, including the most complex and sensitive matters of campus life. Her ability to integrate higher education legal strategy with deep labor and employment insight allows her to provide institutions with forward-thinking, practical guidance that protects their mission, mitigates risk, and supports long-term institutional stability.

Prior to joining Archer, Elizabeth served as General Counsel and Title IX Coordinator for Wilkes University, where she was the University’s chief legal officer and a senior advisor to the President, Board of Trustees, and Governance Committee. In this role, she worked at the center of institutional decision-making during a period of significant change affecting colleges and universities nationwide.

At Wilkes, Elizabeth guided institutional strategy on governance, regulatory compliance, risk management, and major transactions, while overseeing labor and employment matters, complex investigations, litigation, and Title IX compliance. She successfully litigated a significant Deed of Gift dispute, securing more than $5 million for the University’s endowment and operating budget, and reduced outside counsel expenses by more than $1 million by restructuring legal operations and transitioning work in-house.

She drafted and implemented university-wide policies, negotiated a wide range of agreements, managed employment and civil litigation, directed real estate and asset transactions, and delivered Title IX training across campus. She regularly counseled university leadership on sensitive student, employee, and governance matters requiring strategic judgment and discretion. In addition, she served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Business, further deepening her connection to the academic mission of higher education institutions.

Elizabeth’s higher education insight is uniquely complemented by her extensive human resources and labor leadership experience. She previously served as Chief Human Resources Officer and Employment Counsel for Commonwealth Health overseeing HR and employment law functions for multiple hospitals and healthcare entities with more than 2,500 employees. In that capacity, she negotiated collective bargaining agreements with SEIU and AFSCME, led workplace investigations, advised executives on employment risk, and represented the organization before state and federal agencies.

Earlier in her career, Elizabeth was a law clerk for the Hon. Kevin Thomas Duffy, United States District Judge in the Southern District of New York, and then transitioned to Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, LLP in the commercial litigation practice before relocating to Pennsylvania. She continued to work in private practice, advising employers on labor strategy, compliance, and employment disputes, as well as handling commercial litigation and negotiating key agreements.

ATIXA Certified, Elizabeth is experienced in Title VI and Title IX matters for both K-12 and higher education. She is a frequent speaker on higher education and employment law, discrimination prevention, and compliance with federal and state laws.