Crystal Nix-Hines is a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, where she focuses on complex business litigation and crisis management. She is a former New York Times reporter, State Department political appointee and Supreme Court law clerk to Justices Thurgood Marshall and Sandra Day O’Connor.
In 2014, she moved to Paris, France, with her family as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). During her ambassadorship she successfully led the United States’ efforts to secure reelection to UNESCO’s Executive Board — the key decision-making body — as well as launched two global public-private partnerships.
She has served as a Princeton University trustee and has joined the boards of the California Community Foundation and a private financial technology company. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two teenage children.