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At DICK’S Sporting Goods, Elizabeth Conway jokes that her day job is that of a commercial contract attorney with a night job moonlighting as an M&A lawyer. It’s a perfect marriage of what she calls her old and new life. Her early years at Jones Day made it clear she had a passion for M&A work, and those deals will always have a piece of her heart. But Conway found that the deals she enjoyed the most were the ones with repeat players, the people and businesses she got to know more in-depth.
“It made sense for me to eventually go in-house because I really wanted to dig in with one particular client and learn their business,” Conway, current senior director – assistant general counsel at DICK’S Sporting Goods, explains. “I wanted to learn what they cared about, how to be proactive and a problem solver, and not just get a call for one small part of their broader strategy. I wanted to help set the strategy.”
Her approach has already drawn praise from colleagues. “Elizabeth has a rare combination of legal skills, business acumen, and calm leadership. She listens actively, communicates with clarity, and consistently drives toward solutions that serve both legal and business needs. Her personality and sense of humor are a thick layer of icing on the cake,” says Derrik Forshee, Partner at Hogan Lovells.
Conway has always loved the “two-job” approach. She loved mashing things up and making them somehow complement each other. If she was writing a paper for history class in undergrad, she’d examine it from an economic perspective. She’d do her best work by combining two different approaches. She’d take that approach to its logical extreme in pursuit of her post-undergrad degrees.
The lawyer-to-be pursued a joint JD/MBA program that perfectly suited her interdisciplinary passion. Difficult? Yes. Taxing? Of course. But it’s just the way Conway prefers to earn her stripes.
The Service Experience
Around this time, Conway got experience that she considers foundational to the way she practices today. It happened off-campus and out of any courtroom.
“I was a bartender and server through school, and I had these regular clients who jokingly referred to me as the ‘absolutely girl,’” Conway remembers. “Whatever they would ask me, that’s what I would say. I think about that to this day. That’s the kind of lawyer I am. I may not know the answer, and I may be very outside my expertise in the moment, but I always believe we can figure it out. We’ll find the right people and the right path forward, and I’m always sure it can be done.”
Working in the service industry also provided her a deep empathy for both service and retail workers. Conway interned at American Eagle, before accruing significant transactional and M&A experience at Jones Day, and she is now at DICK’S Sporting Goods, where the teams are served well by someone who has seen people at their best and their worst.
Once in a Lifetime Deal
One of Conway’s high points at DICK’S wasn’t one she could speak of at the time, but the ink is dry at present. On September 8, 2025, the company announced the successful acquisition of the iconic retailer Foot Locker. As a combined company, DICK’S will now operate more than 3,200 stores plus e-commerce and digital business across twenty countries.
This is a landmark moment for both the company and Conway’s M&A passion. It’s the acquisition of an organization that everyone knows and has probably visited at some point in time.
Conway couldn’t say much at the time of speaking, but her pride was clear.
“It’s the opportunity of a career to have the chance to work on this,” she says. “I’ve learned more and gotten to work with so many people across the organization that I wouldn’t normally. It is transformational—pivotal—and I got to see our leadership making incredible decisions at this critical point in its trajectory. I’m extremely excited for what’s ahead for both companies.”
The lawyer has also ventured beyond the world of contracts and acquisitions in support of DICK’S marketing and technology teams, breaking new ground via digital engagement for athletes and supporting initiatives like DSG Ventures, the company’s investment fund for startups in sports and retail.
A New Perspective
Conway says her own evolving leadership and the way she thinks about her career have been significantly impacted by her raising her own young twin daughters. It’s made qualities like empathy and delegation more important to a person who previously would have just stayed later and worked harder.
“There is now a finite number of hours in the day,” Conway explains. “Dinner, bath time, bedtime routine, these are blocks of time that, barring very little, are nonnegotiable for me. That makes me work smarter, and I hope it’s made me more understanding with my own team.”
Maybe most importantly, Conway says she’s learned that white-knuckling a hard moment is often the worst way to handle a situation. Communication and transparency, rather, have replaced a tendency to just get through a tough situation.
It’s important to note here that Conway only graduated with her JD (and MBA) in 2018. She’s incredibly early in her career. There are so many new areas and ideas that Conway will figure out how to combine and intertwine. But what a start to a career, less than a decade in.
“Elizabeth is an exceptional advisor who balances risk and opportunity with grace. She’s principled, proactive, and builds strong partnerships that move DICK’S forward. It’s an absolute pleasure working with her.”
–Derrik Forshee, Partner
