Rachel Tiven
After just two years on the job, Lambda Legal CEO Rachel Tiven resigned on Aug. 3.
The official statement from the organization said she resigned to work on the 2018 midterm elections. She said she was hired to make big changes in the organization and is proud of what she accomplished.
“Ultimately, though, with Justice Kennedy’s retirement and Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination, so much of what Lambda is fighting for rests on what happens in Congress,” she wrote. “I’ll be joining the Leadership Now Project, and spending the next crucial months helping save our democracy at the ballot box.”
However, Lambda Unites, the Lambda Legal employees union, formed when healthcare and retirement benefits were cut, issued its own statement.
It called for a fresh start.
“We have been in the process of working on a union contract for five months now, and Lambda Legal management’s actions have frequently indicated to us that they have not been as invested in quickly coming to an agreement as we are,” union representatives wrote in its statement.
Locally, longtime senior staff attorney Ken Upton resigned from the organization as well. He announced his resignation before the announcement of Tiven’s departure. Since Tiven became CEO, more than 50 staff members have left Lambda Legal.
— David Taffet
