Eva Davis of Winston & Strawn named to 2020 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A

What’s new?
Together with one of my partners, I spearheaded Winston’s first annual Capital Connection event, which brought together 25 sell-side investment banks located in Los Angeles with 25 private equity fund clients with offices outside of LA for “one-on-one” meetings to facilitate future dealmaking.

How are you a champion for change?
I encouraged two male associates who work on my primary deal team to take full parental leave (20 weeks and at the same time!) This took a lot of extra effort to seamlessly service our clients during this period. While the primary purpose of this gender-neutral policy is to attract and retain the most talented men and women, another benefit is to support gender-neutral staffing. Partners should be indifferent about staffing a man or a woman, as either is equally as likely to take an extended leave during a deal.

Tell us more about you
This year marks the 18th anniversary of my involvement with Read to a Child, a national literacy and mentoring non-profit that fosters a love of reading and empowers underserved children by inspiring adults to read aloud to them.