PHYLLIS A. JAMES is Founding President and CEO of the Foundation for Women’s Leadership & Empowerment (“FWLE”), a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization established in May 2019 to help remedy one of America’s and the world’s most urgent needs – access by women and women of color to high-quality educational experiences that prepare them (as well as men) for leadership roles across society. With founding support from MGM Resorts International, FWLE seeks to expand the pipeline of women leaders through Las Vegas’ Women’s Leadership Conference (“WLC”) – one of the, if not the, premier women’s development conferences in the western United States, and other accessible programs.

Ms. James has a distinguished multi-disciplinary career history as a lawyer and C-suite executive:

• Seventeen (17) years at MGM Resorts – where she served as Chief Diversity and Corporate Responsibility Officer for more than a decade; as the principal management liaison to the parent corporation’s Board of Directors CSR/ESG Committee; and as head of Company litigation during most of her tenure. She played a seminal role in the evolution of MGM’s industry-leading CSR/ESG diversity and inclusion, philanthropy, and volunteerism initiatives into a cohesive business and social impact platform, embedding DEI values into the company’s culture and business operations.
• Eight (8) years as Corporation Counsel (Chief Legal Officer) for the City of Detroit under Mayor Dennis W. Archer – where she served as lead lawyer for the City in several legacy economic revitalization projects (e.g., Comerica Park, Ford Field, Campus Martius downtown business district, and Detroit gaming industry); counsel for the Mayor’s Office, the Executive branch, and the City’s legislative branch (City Council); and Law Director for a department of approximately 100 lawyers.
• Fifteen (15) years in private law practice, first as an associate and then as a partner specializing in complex commercial litigation, at the San Francisco-based firm of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) – where she became the firm’s first African American partner.

Beyond her executive and legal experience, Ms. James has served on several for-profit and non-profit boards of directors. She is a member of the Strategic Advisory board of algoface.ai, a cutting-edge artificial intelligence enterprise, and has served for almost two decades as a member of the MGM Grand Detroit, LLC board. Her most recent non-profit service includes the boards of Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas, Nevada Legal Services Inc. and previously the MGM Resorts Foundation.

Throughout her career Ms. James has been active in numerous bar association and civic affairs and has received several recognitions for her legal accomplishments and civic contributions, including Outstanding Business achievement as One of the 2019 Most Powerful Women in Corporate Diversity (Black Enterprise Magazine); Human Rights Campaign – Las Vegas Equality Award for outstanding service to the LGBTQ community (2017); the National Bar Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016); and admission to the American Law Institute, the leading independent U.S. organization producing scholarly legal word (2015).

Ms. James earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in American History and Literature from Harvard/Radcliffe College after having received the honors of Phi Beta Kapa junior year, the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize (then Radcliffe College’s highest honor for a graduating woman based on the graduate’s scholarship, conduct and character) and the Isobelle T. Briggs Fellowship for Graduate Study. She commenced her legal career as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Theodore R. Newman, Jr., then Chief Judge of the District of Colombia Court of Appeals.