Elaina Kim Benfield

Elaina is an Assistant General Counsel at Vanguard supporting its retail brokerage business and focuses on trading and products. Prior to her current role, Elaina supported Vanguard’s global public policy group, as well as Vanguard’s capital markets group, and specialized in securities lending. Prior to Vanguard, Elaina served as Senior Counsel at State Street Bank supporting its global markets division. Prior to State Street, Elaina trained at the law firm, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Boston, where she specialized in the mutual fund industry. 

Elaina leads Vanguard’s Office of General Counsel’s DEI Committee, is an Executive Board Member of The Pipeline to Practice Foundation, a non-profit organization which supports and nurtures low-income law students at critical academic and professional development stages, and is a co-founder of Women in Securities Finance, a networking group whose mission is to create a community to foster connections and promote the inclusion and advance of women in the securities finance industry. www.womeninsecuritiesfinance.com

Elaina received her J.D. from Boston College Law School and B.A. from Georgetown University.  She is a member of the Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania bar associations.