Libby Coreno

Elizabeth Coreno (“Libby”) provides counsel and consulting services to individuals, regional businesses, and international corporations in the real estate and construction industries. She is currently general counsel to Bonacio Construction, Inc., and manages a small boutique practice (Law Office of M. Elizabeth Coreno, Esq. PC) for clients who need expertise in zoning, planning, and real property development; complex commercial and real estate transactions; land use and SEQRA actions. Over the last 17 years, Libby has acted as land use counsel to some of the largest economic and real estate development projects in the Capital and Mohawk Valley regions of New York State.

Libby is also a long-time advocate and speaker on the issue of attorney well-being and worked to form the first-ever Attorney Wellbeing Subcommittee at the New York State Bar Association, as part of the Law Practice Management Committee. When she was president of the Saratoga County Bar Association, she brought about the establishment of SCBA’s Lawyers Assistance Committee and currently serves as the committee’s chair. Libby was also a contributing member of NYSBA’s Working Group for Mental Health, which successfully advocated for the removal of mental health screening questions for admission to the New York State bar in 2019. In 2020, Libby and her colleague, Dr. Kerry Murray O’Hara, PsyD, hosted the first-ever 5-part “Attorney Wellbeing Podcast” for NYSBA, which focused on the foundations of the attorney suffering and methods to begin to shift change. When the COVID-19 shutdown began, Libby and Dr. O’Hara developed a confidential, weekly Zoom gathering solely focused on well-being impacts to the lives of lawyers. The “Lawyer-to-Lawyer Well-Being Roundtable” met for 54 free sessions between 2020 and 2021 in which lawyers collectively shared fears and concerns about depression, anxiety, court closures, racial injustice, political upheaval—but, ultimately obtained skills for their lives, tools for their practices, and a sense of belonging. She is the author of several articles on attorney well-being, including “Attorney Wellness: The Science of Stress and the Road to Well-Being” (with Dr. O’Hara) (NYSBA Bar Journal, Oct. 2018) and “Never Alone: Addiction, Recovery & Community” (NYSBA Bar Journal, Dec. 2018). During the same period, Libby also co-chaired the 85-member NYSBA Attorney Wellbeing Task Force, which released its 175-page landmark report on October 30, 2021, after unanimous acceptance by the House of Delegates. She has been interviewed by national publications on issues facing lawyers and their well-being, including law.com, the New York Law Journal, Bloomberg Law, and the American Bar Association’s “Bar Leader.” Libby, along with Dr. O’Hara, are nationally recognized speakers and workshop leaders in lawyer well-being, specifically advocating for culture change and teaching skills for the rehumanizing of law and its lawyers.

Libby is a Saratoga TODAY™ Women of Influence Honoree (2016), a 2003 cum laude graduate of Albany Law School, and earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky. She has served on numerous non-profit boards of directors in the Saratoga region, including as president of the Leadership Saratoga Alumni Board for the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. Libby maintains an active speaking and publishing schedule for real estate development law (zoning and planning), as well as professional leadership and wellness. Presentations and published articles on wellbeing include:

• Workplace Wellbeing: The Future of Work Series (WMHT/PBS Television, 2021)
• Rehumanizing Organizations through Employee Wellbeing (Albany Law School, 2021)
• Finding the Compassion Balance: Mindful Lawyering and Vicarious Trauma (NYSBA CLE 2020)
• Mindful Lawyering in Challenging Times (NYSBA CLE 2020)
• Managing Difficult Conversations (NYSBA Women on the Move 2017)
• Empowered Conversations (Northeast NY Employee Assistance Professionals Association 2016)
• Mindful Practice, Mindful Life, (NYSBA, LAP Annual Retreat 2015)
• Mindful Leadership, Leadership Saratoga, Saratoga Springs (annually since 2013)