Cynthia Robertson, a Pillsbury special counsel and member of the Appellate and Litigation teams, handles complex, high-stakes federal and state court civil litigation and appeals, state and federal agency adversary proceedings and regulatory appeals, and dispute resolution through arbitration and mediation.
Located in Pillsbury's Washington, DC, office, Cynthia's trial and appellate experience includes case assessment; discovery management and fact development; pre-suit negotiations; pleadings and pretrial motions practice; dispositive motions, evidentiary hearings, and trial; post-trial practice; appellate strategy and planning; appellate motions practice and merits briefing; and state and federal petitions for certiorari. Cynthia is skilled in addressing complex procedural and regulatory issues, and in building winning narratives out of complicated fact patterns.
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Cynthia also maintains an active pro bono practice focused on civil rights and liberties, and economic justice issues. Cynthia was a key player on a team of Pillsbury attorneys who, after more than a decade of litigation (including two successful appeals to the D.C. Circuit), recently obtained a judgment that the Cherokee Freedmen, the descendants of slaves once owned by members of the Cherokee Nation, have the inherited right to equal citizenship in the Cherokee Nation under the Cherokee Nation’s 1866 treaty with the United States. Cynthia has recently drafted and filed amicus briefs on behalf of plaintiffs challenging Virginia’s automatic driver’s license suspension laws; Cynthia also collaborated with a leading gender rights scholar and advocate on an amicus brief supporting challengers to the military transgender ban.
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Education
J.D., Harvard Law School, 2008
M.A., The Johns Hopkins University, 1997
B.A., St. John Fisher College, 1994
Admissions
District of Columbia
Virginia
Courts
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
Clerkships
Served as a summer law clerk with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia in the Appellate Division, and with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts in the Organized Crime Division, during law school.
