Lucy Lee Helm retired from Starbucks Coffee Company in 2020, after more than 21 years as a partner (employee) in legal and human resources roles, including serving on the company’s Executive Team as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, and Chief Partner Officer (leading HR).
At Starbucks, Lucy was a champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, including leading the company’s achievement of gender and racial pay equity in the US. She also created Starbucks’ pro bono services program, which became a model for other corporate law departments. Before Starbucks, Lucy practiced law as a litigator at the law firms Riddell Williams in Seattle and Barnett & Alagia in Louisville and was the advocacy director and assistant director at the Center for Accessible Living in Louisville.
Lucy is a passionate and engaged advisor, consultant and public speaker on leadership development, team building, career advancement, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Lucy serves on the Board of the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, and on the Advisory Boards of the Endowment for Equal Justic and Disability Rights Advocates. From 2012-2024 Lucy served on the Board of Mercy Corps, a global relief and development organization, including as Global Board Chair. Lucy chairs the Leadership Cabinet of the Jean Frazier Leadership Institute of Sacred Heart Schools. She is the co-director of Camp Parkview, a residential camp for adults with developmental disabilities, where she has volunteered for 25 years. She served for over 20 years on the Board of the Washington YMCA Youth and Government program, including several years as its Board Chair.
Lucy received the 2017 Charles Goldmark award from the Legal Foundation of Washington for distinguished pro bono service, and the 2021 Justice Robert Utter Award for outstanding contributions to civic leadership in Washington State.
Lucy grew up in Louisville Kentucky and graduated from the University of Louisville with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a Juris Doctor from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law. She was honored as the University of Louisville’s 2022 Alumna of the Year, and as an Alumni Fellow of both the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and the Brandeis School of Law. She currently serves as advisor to the University’s Women in Philanthropy program.
