Ms. Shelly L. Skeen
Senior Attorney
Lambda Legal
Shelly L. Skeen (she/her) is a Senior Attorney for Lambda Legal, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is a national legal organization committed to achieving the full recognition of civil rights for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender (LGBT) people and everyone living with HIV. Shelly is a seasoned litigator, mediator, arbitrator, and appellate practitioner. She holds a diploma in International Arbitration, has filed amici briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and successfully appeared before Texas Supreme Court. Shelly served as the Chair of the LGBT Law Section for the State Bar of Texas (SBOT) and President of the Dallas LGBT Bar Association. She is a frequent speaker and author, is adjunct faculty for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and is an adjunct professor for UNT School of Law. In 2016, The Texas Bar College awarded Shelly The Franklin Jones Award for the Best CLE Article as voted by her peers, and The LGBT Law Section also honored Shelly with its highest award, the Judge Black Award, for her work on behalf of the LGBT community. Shelly was a founding member and Chair of Policy & Advocacy for the “Coalition for Aging, LGBT” and currently serves on the Board of “Friends of Juanita Craft Civil Rights House,” as the Chair of Civil Rights Trail Committee. Shelly is serving a second 3-year term on the SBOT CLE Committee and works with UT and UNT law schools on behalf of Transgender Texans in their legal clinics. In 2018, Shelly earned an LL.M. from UCLA School of Law, with specializations in Constitutional Law and Law & Sexuality.
