Nix-Hines, Crystal, 1963-

<p>Crystal Nix-Hines (born 1963) served as the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the rank of Ambassador between July 2014 and January 2017.</p>

<p>Crystal Nix grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, where her father, Theophilus R. Nix Sr., was the second African-American attorney admitted to the Delaware bar, and her mother, Dr. Lulu Mae Nix, founded social service organizations. She attended the Wilmington Friends School, along with her sister and two brothers, one of whom is corporate counsel at DuPont Corporation.</p>

<p>In 1985, Nix-Hines was graduated from Princeton University, where she was a classmate of Michelle Robinson Obama and the editor-in-chief of The Daily Princetonian. From 2006 she served for nine years on Princeton's Board of Trustees. In 1990, she graduated from Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review with Barack Obama.</p>

<p>Following law school, she clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals from 1990 to 1991. From 1991 to 1992, she clerked for Justices Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>

<p>During her legal career, Nix-Hines has worked at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Fairbank & Vincent and O’Melveny & Myers, LLP. She also served as Assistant to the General Counsel/Senior Vice President of Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. and held several positions at the State Department, including Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, member of the Department's Policy Planning Staff, and Special Assistant to the Legal Adviser.</p>

<p>Nix-Hines has also worked as a writer and producer on several network television shows such as Commander-in-Chief, Alias, and The Practice. She began her career as a reporter for The New York Times (in his memoir The Times of My Life and My Life at the Times, former Times executive editor Max Frankel wrote that in leaving journalism for law, Ms. Nix had “left a promising reporting career.”)</p>

<p>On July 9, 2013, Nix-Hines was nominated by President Obama to the position of United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) with the rank of ambassador. Nix-Hines was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 12, 2014, and sworn into office on July 16, 2014. During her tenure, she and her husband, David Hines, resided in Paris, France. In January 2017, at the end of Obama's term, she stepped down from the post.</p>

<p>Crystal Nix-Hines is a Partner in the Los Angeles Office where she focuses on complex litigation, including shareholder derivative actions, contractual and unfair business practice disputes, class actions and intellectual property litigation. Since returning to the firm in 2017 after her tenure in Paris as U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO, Ambassador Nix-Hines has also spearheaded the firm’s Crisis Law & Strategy Group, which helps companies with crisis management, as well as longer-term strategic issues including diversity and inclusion, compliance and corporate governance issues. She initially joined the firm in 2008 as Of Counsel.</p>

<p>A former Supreme Court law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O’Connor, and to the late William Norris of the Ninth Circuit, Ambassador Nix-Hines excels in formulating legal strategy and written product that will demolish the opposing side. She works actively to secure early victories for clients at the motion to dismiss or summary judgment stages, while laying the groundwork for a successful appeal, if necessary. She has played an instrumental role in numerous trial and appellate cases, including two successful cases before the Supreme Court.</p>

<p>During her ambassadorial tenure, Ambassador Nix-Hines established a proactive, entrepreneurial and constructive mandate for the U.S. Mission that highlighted American leadership and improved organizational governance and effectiveness. She successfully led United States’ efforts in Paris to secure reelection to UNESCO’s Executive Board – the key decision-making body – as well as launched a series of innovative initiatives, including two global public-private partnerships.</p>

<p>Ambassador Nix-Hines earned a B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she graduated with honors and served as Supervising Editor of the Harvard Law Review. During her nine-year tenure as a Trustee of Princeton University, she served on its Executive and Nominating Committees, and chaired its Student Life Committee. Along with other Trustees, she oversaw the University’s $21 billion endowment, as well as a Capital Campaign that raised over $1.88 billion.</p>