Elizabeth Spector Louden
I bring Proskauer training and general counsel judgment together, delivered directly, without the overhead of a traditional firm.
In the Client's Chair
As Deputy General Counsel and Global Head of Labor & Employment at Etsy, Inc., I sat where my clients sit, building and running the people function as the company scaled from roughly 800 to more than 3,500 employees across ten countries and four acquisitions, and steering it through an activist campaign. That workforce spanned engineering, product, and corporate teams at Etsy’s core marketplace alongside Reverb, Depop, and Elo7, the marketplace businesses Etsy acquired, each requiring its own employment and HR strategy across distinct markets, cultures, and regulatory regimes.
Proskauer & the Practice
Trained at Proskauer Rose, I learned to defend employers in their hardest disputes: mediations, depositions, arbitrations including FINRA, and the full arc of employment defense.
Jurisdictions & Network
I am anchored in New York, and routinely advise companies with operations across the country and abroad, including in California, through a vetted network of local counsel where I am not directly admitted. Cross-border and multi-state matters are coordinated under one point of contact so the strategy stays coherent across jurisdictions.
- United States (New York)
- North America (Canada & Mexico)
- United Kingdom
- European Union (especially Ireland, Germany & the Netherlands)
- India
- Brazil
Credentials & Admissions
- J.D., NYU School of Law
- B.A., magna cum laude & Phi Beta Kappa, University of Pennsylvania
- Deputy General Counsel & Global Head of Labor & Employment, Etsy, Inc.
- Formerly Proskauer Rose (Labor & Employment)
- Harvard Agentic AI, 2026
- Admitted: New York · S.D.N.Y., E.D.N.Y., E.D. Mich. · PA, NJ, DE (pending)
Representative Matters
Every matter below reached a favorable resolution. Confidentiality prevents me from saying more than that. A selection of representative work, described in the anonymized terms that sensitive engagements require.
The record in context. For eight and a half years I ran global employment for Etsy as it scaled from roughly 800 to more than 3,500 employees across ten countries and four acquisitions, with an independent, vocal, and activist workforce, through a period of intense social and political volatility, and under the scrutiny that comes with a public company. Demand letters, threatened arbitrations, and pre-litigation claims arrived steadily throughout. Every one was resolved quietly, within authority, and not one became a publicly filed lawsuit.
Won pre-trial dismissal of combined age- and disability-discrimination claims brought by a long-tenured employee, defeating an eight-figure demand.
Defended age- and race-discrimination claims brought by a senior executive, involving contested allegations of racially coded language.
Managed a harassment matter that played out partly in public view, involving allegations against senior leadership, with exposure across multiple jurisdictions.
Investigated the inadvertent hiring of a remote contractor later identified as a foreign-state operative posing as a U.S.-based employee.
Investigated a co-founder dispute centered on allegations that one founder's substance use was affecting the workplace and the treatment of colleagues.
Investigated allegations of inappropriate conduct involving minors against senior staff at a youth-serving organization.
Investigated a senior employee accused of an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, accompanied by threatening and coercive conduct.
Investigated a senior employee running an undisclosed outside business that posed conflict-of-interest and compliance risks.
Unraveled an expense-and-entertainment fraud scheme run through a short-term-rental front by an employee operator.
Managed a workplace-safety crisis after discovery of an employee's serious undisclosed criminal history and a resulting threat to a company facility, coordinating threat response across local and federal law enforcement.
These matters draw on fluency with forensic-analysis techniques and years working hand-in-glove with engineering teams on fraud, cybersecurity, and data-privacy investigations.
Guided a public company through the creation of its DEI program and the public scrutiny that followed (from the 2020 racial-justice moment through the subsequent backlash and ESG reporting), steering decisions to avoid the reputational crises that overtook peer companies.
Led workforce risk-assessment and planning across COVID-19 response, return-to-office, and pay-transparency compliance.
Counseled on a series of sensitive senior-leader separations, including exits arising from credible fraud allegations, performance, and role eliminations, and matters that reached the board.
Advised on reductions in force and corporate restructurings.
Provided M&A employment support across the deal arc: due diligence, pre-integration planning, and post-closing integration.
Led employment integration for a multi-country marketplace acquisition, standing up compliant HR operations across newly acquired entities while preserving each one's distinct culture.
Counseled investors on M&A workforce matters: investment-side diligence, transaction support, and transition services.
Advised leadership on the legal risk of restricting internal communication channels, weighed against the likelihood of walkouts or work stoppages.
Advised on employee petitions to organize unions or works councils.
Advised management on responding to collective employee demand petitions.
Advised on executive talent strategy: hiring, retention, internal mobility, coaching, and exit.
Conducted disciplinary hearings at the school and district level.