Laura E. Arnold is Co-Chair of the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. LJAF’s core objective is to produce substantial, widespread and lasting reforms that will maximize opportunities and minimize injustice in our society. LJAF’s strategy is to systematically examine areas of society in which barriers to human progress and achievement exist, and to then apply a rigorous, comprehensive and entrepreneurial approach to these areas, considering all possible strategies, tactics and resource levels and teams (including existing players) to effect solutions. LJAF’s current areas of focus include criminal justice, government accountability initiatives and education.
Until late 2005, Ms. Arnold was Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Cobalt International Energy, L.P. in Houston, Texas. Prior to that, she was a mergers and acquisitions attorney at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in New York, New York.
Ms. Arnold is a member of the New York bar. She has a J.D. from the Yale Law School, an M.Phil in European Studies from the University of Cambridge and a B.A., Magna Cum Laude, in Government from Harvard College. After law school, Ms. Arnold clerked for the Hon. Judith W. Rogers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Ms. Arnold is an Adjunct Professor of Management at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University, where she is also a Trustee. She is also a member of the national board of directors of Teach For America and the Innocence Project and a trustee of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.