Jenny Pizer

Jenny Pizer has been one of the LGBTQ+ community’s key legal strategists in the national fight for full equality for over 25 years. She is Chief Legal Officer and Eden/Rushing Chair for Lambda Legal, the country’s oldest and largest legal organization representing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) civil rights movement through impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education.  In this role, Jenny leads the organization’s Legal Department of 40 lawyers and 12 paraprofessionals working nationwide from offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, D.C.  Since joining Lambda Legal’s staff in 1996, Jenny has litigated cases to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in employment, education, health care, and family law including marriage, and against the use of religion and free speech rights to license discrimination. She also has worked closely with elected officials and LGBTQ+ policy advocacy groups federally and in many states, especially in California, on conceiving, framing, and advocating for legislation and regulatory reforms ranging from comprehensive nondiscrimination protections to broad domestic partner protections, and for marriage equality in statute and state constitutions.