ABOUT CYNTHIA

Cynthia (“Cyndy”) Hill Happleby has been practicing law since 2003. She was born and raised in Georgia and believes in the concept of “good trouble.” She is a graduate of Berry College, with a degree in Political Science, and received her Juris Doctor from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Cyndy has more than 20 years of legal experience spanning public and private sectors. She is a current member of the Board of Directors for Lambda Legal, the nation’s oldest and largest legal organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV.

Cyndy’s diverse career includes experience as a civil litigator, an in-house government transactional attorney, a public corruption prosecutor and an in-house corporate attorney. She currently serves as a director, corporate counsel for Starbucks Corporation in Seattle, Washington. In this role, she manages nearly all forms of litigation for the company across the United States and Canada. She is active in numerous inclusion and diversity initiatives for the company and prides herself on being a vocal advocate for LGBTQ inclusion with a focus on intersectionality with other affinity groups.

Since early in her legal career, Cyndy has been guided by a strong moral compass. Her role as a whistleblower at a government agency led to her association with law enforcement in the late 2000s. That experience opened the opportunity for Cyndy to be an originating member of the public corruption special unit of the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office in Atlanta, Georgia in 2012. There she prosecuted public officials for various crimes, including RICO violations, and served as the primary liaison to a year-long special purpose grand jury that investigated corrupt contract/procurement and election activities by county and city officials. That work led Cyndy to her interest in organizational ethics, which ultimately steered her to an initial role with Starbucks on its Ethics and Compliance legal team in 2017.

Cyndy is often a speaker for panels on issues related to organizational ethics, the importance of inclusion and diversity in the legal field, litigation trends for retail corporations, and the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights and equality. She and her wife, Katy (an attorney at Amazon Pharmacy), reside in Seattle, Washington with pets, Oyster, Sushi and Ginsburg. They are expecting their first child in November!

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Knobbe Martens LLP

Lane Powell PC

QLAW: The LGBTQ+ Bar Association of Washington

Wojiech “Voytek” Jackowski

The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and Foundation is proud to honor legal professionals who advance LGBTQ+ equality through words and actions to create more secure and welcoming workplaces. We invite you to join us as we honor our Board Presidents for their efforts to recognize and expand LGBTQ+ legal diversity in the profession.

For more information about sponsoring this and future events, please contact Seth Rosen or Nicole Fox by email (seth@lgbtqbar.org, nicole@lgbtqbar.org) or phone (202.637.7663).