Cynthia Bookhart Adams is Managing Director and General Counsel for Litigation, Regulatory and Employment Legal at Jefferies LLC. She leads the team responsible for a wide array of litigation, enforcement, and employment matters, including internal investigations and firm-wide policy initiatives.
Prior to Jefferies, Adams held senior in-house legal roles at Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Global Wealth Management. She joined Citigroup from WilmerHale, representing financial institutions in regulatory investigations. Previously, she was an enforcement attorney in the New York office of FINRA. Adams started at Sullivan & Cromwell, following a federal clerkship with the Hon. Emmet G. Sullivan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Adams frequently speaks about ethics and best practices for compliance and diverse counsel. Her professional affiliations include the Jefferies Women’s Initiative Steering Committee, Northside Center for Child Development Board of Directors, Volunteers of Legal Services Board, Corporate Counsel Women of Color Advisory Board, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, NBA and ABA Life Fellow.
Adams earned her law degree with honors from Howard University School of Law, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review, and her undergraduate degree from the College of William & Mary.
