Jones Lang Lasalle international director Elizabeth Cooper always thought she’d become a lawyer. But after working as one for Covington & Burling doing real estate transactions and falling in love with the business side of things, she found her calling. She handled a pro bono office lease consolidation project for DC, where she worked closely with two brokers, one of them JLL’s Greg O’Brien (recently named the firm’s CEO of the Americas). He asked her to join The Staubach Co (now JLL) and she left Covington on sabbatical in 1998. She’s been at JLL ever since. Here's Elizabeth in the early days of her career with Roger Staubach.

Elizabeth fondly remembers working on the redevelopment of the former GW Hospital site. The project, at 2200 Pennsylvania Ave, involved her in various aspects of the redevelopment from advising the university, to procuring the services of a developer, and then working as the tenant rep for two anchor clients. Elizabeth co-leads JLL's law firm group (locally and globally) and represents some of the most prominent firms in DC and around the world. Her best lesson: Do what's right, not what's easy.