Politics, jurisprudence and public service have all converged in Cynthia H. Coffman’s (J.D. ’91) career since her days in what was once a fledging College of Law at Georgia State University.
Now the attorney general of Colorado, Coffman was raised in small-town Missouri and graduated from the University of Missouri –Columbia before moving to Atlanta in 1985.
“I knew I was going to law school. I looked at Georgia State, Emory and the University of Georgia. I audited classes. I talked to law students. I felt that Georgia State Law was the best fit for me,” she said. “I was in the fifth class of the law school, which had started in 1982, and it was almost like a learning lab. The relationship between students and faculty was closer than I think in most law schools. The practice-based curriculum was good for me, because I’m not just a bookworm; I also learn by doing.
“By attending Georgia State Law, I was able to work and go to school and not go into debt. That was important to me,” she added.
After graduation, Coffman worked in the Georgia Attorney General’s office.
“I got that job because of Georgia State,” she said. That ushered in the opportunity to work as a lawyer in finance and management services for the 1996 Centennial Olympic games. When a pipe bomb fashioned by a domestic terrorist exploded in Olympic Park during a warm and crowded July evening concert, the international celebrations took a somber turn.
“It affected me deeply,” Coffman said. “After the bombing, it was a very different games. I shifted to working directly with the victims. It was a life-altering experience to be around death and people whose lives were altered in an instant.”
The experience profoundly informed her next move. She had dreamed of a life in Colorado “someday.” The next year became that someday.
Coffman moved west, joining the Colorado General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Council, followed by a stint in private practice, where she was recruited to work for the Department of Public Health and Environment, first as director of legal and regulatory affairs, then as deputy executive director. She delved into all manner of environmental and health issues, including air and water quality, disease control, bioterrorism and maternal and child health programming.
In 2004 Coffman served as chief counsel to then governor Bill Owens. The next year Attorney General John Suthers selected her as chief deputy. In 2012 she was named Best Public Sector Lawyer. As second-in-command in the attorney general’s office, she wasn’t ready to leave when her boss finished his term limit, citing work she still wanted to do for the state she had come to call home. Coffman, who is married to U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman (R) of Colorado, decided to run for attorney general. She was elected in 2014.
As “Colorado’s lawyer,” she aims to serve the public widely. Part of that has been bringing community and nonprofits together in her office in order to reach more of the population with information and services. There are challenges to being both politician and lawyer. “The two don’t always mix,” she said. “I ask myself, ‘Am I striking the right balance? Am I running this office so the 280 lawyers and 500 people who work here can do their best work?’”
Coffman soon discovered that being elected attorney general placed her firmly at the intersection of law, policy and politics.
“This is where what I learned in constitutional law comes to life,” she said. “The education I got at Georgia State has served me well, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
She finds the work so fulfilling she admitted she’ll likely run for a second term. “This is the best job I’ve had in my legal career. I started out in an attorney general’s office in Georgia, and it’s like I’ve come full circle.”