Lambda Legal Elects New Members to Board of Directors

(New York, March 28, 2019) – Lambda Legal announced the election of three new members to serve on its Board of Directors, including: Peter T. Barbur, a litigation partner at Cravath, Swain & Moore LLP; Meg Columbia-Walsh, CEO and founder of tech company Wylei; and Michelle S. Riley, General Counsel & CCO, Americas at Bregal Investments, Inc.

"We are delighted to welcome these three extraordinary leaders onto Lambda Legal’s board,” Lambda Legal Interim CEO Richard Burns said. “Each brings tremendous talent and energy to help us continue our work to advance and defend civil rights for LGBTQ people and people living with HIV. We greatly appreciate their willingness to devote their time and expertise in this national effort, particularly during these times when our rights and institutions are facing attack on multiple fronts."

Peter T. Barbur, based in New York, has a long history of pro bono civil rights work, including supporting cases brought by ACLU and Lambda Legal as well serving as chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Civil Rights Committee. Barbur is a partner in Cravath’s Litigation Department, where he handles a wide variety of antitrust, intellectual property and securities litigation, as well as internal corporate investigations, antitrust-related government investigations, international arbitrations and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters. His clients include American Express, Time Warner Inc., Warner Media, Viacom International and Black Entertainment Television.

Barbur’s litigation work has been recognized by several New York and national legal publications. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Aperture Foundation, a member of the Photography Committee at the Whitney Museum of American Art and a member of the Photography Council at the Museum of Modern Art.

"Lambda Legal has played a pivotal role throughout the decades in advancing the civil rights of the LGBT community and I'm extremely honored to be asked to contribute more closely to this organization," Barbur said.

Columbia-Walsh is one of the most successfully exited tech CEO’s, with 5 companies sold including an IPO, to the Fortune 100. She’s currently the first US President of Code WorldWide, an agency of Omnicom, of marketing automation and personalization. Previously, she was at Wylie Inc., where she was CEO and is a Co-Founder.

Columbia-Walsh has also founded and sold 5 mar-tech companies including Inverse Mobile, sold to EY; HealthTech Digital Communications, the first online healthcare ad agency sold to IPG, founder of first healthcare website as founder and CEO of CBS Healthwatch, a business she subsequently took public and sold, and as CEO of Oncology.com, sold to Phamacia and Upjohn.

Meg serves or has served on the Board of Directors on numerous non-profit companies including Rider University Board of Trustees, National Coalition of Cancer Survivorship, StartOUT, Healthy Women, Family Equality Council, Rider University President's Council, Rider Executive Women's Council (of which she is also a co-founder) and as an advisor at Rutgers’s Business School. She is also a Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology teaching Entrepreneurism to Engineers.

"The work of Lambda Legal, from litigating for the freedom to marry to fighting discrimination in employment, healthcare and education, makes an enormous impact on people’s lives,” Columbia-Walsh said. “I’m thrilled to be part of an organization that is advancing equality both in the courts and in statehouses across the country."

Michelle S. Riley is General Counsel & CCO - Americas at Bregal Investments, Inc., a New York and London-based private equity group with over $16 billion invested. Bregal’s investment funds span the private equity spectrum, encompassing mid-market LBOs, growth equity, debt, energy and infrastructure, venture capital and fund-of-funds. Prior to joining Bregal in 2007, Riley was Vice President and Co-General Counsel of ICON Capital Corp., a global asset manager and specialty finance company based in New York. Before joining ICON, she spent eight years as a mergers & acquisitions attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in London, England, and New York. She also spent a year serving as In-House Counsel to John Edwards’ 2004 U.S. Democratic Presidential Primary Campaign.

Riley is also a Tony Award-winning theatre producer for 2018’s Best Musical Revival Once on This Island. In the 2018-2019 Broadway season, she is producing Hadestown and Be More Chill and is an investor in To Kill A Mockingbird and Network. Riley serves on the Yale Law School Fund Board and Executive Committee and has acted as an advisor to the NYU Clean Tech Incubator and to Americans Promoting Study Abroad. She was selected by Inside Counsel Magazine as one of 100 women “Poised for Prominence” as a Fortune 500 General Counsel.

“For nearly 50 years, Lambda Legal has made a tremendous impact on the nation through its litigation, advocacy and outreach on behalf of the LGBT community and everyone impacted by HIV,” Riley said. “I believe in this work and am honored to join the board of directors and continue that legacy.”