Collyn Ann Peddie

We’re delighted to present our Alumni Spotlight for September, Collyn Ann Peddie from the 1979-1980 Presidential Fellows class. Collyn is a self-described political junkie (she has an extensive collection of political campaign buttons dating back to President Benjamin Harrison’s run in the late 1800s) whose career has taken her from big-firm partnerships to public service. In her current position as Senior Assistant Attorney for the City of Houston, Collyn played an important role in the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, handling the challenge in the State and federal courts to the City’s alleged cancellation of the State Republican Convention. In addition, she has handled appeals in same-sex marriage and immigration lawsuits against the City, to efforts to eliminate to all of the City’s major financing mechanisms, to a constitutional challenge to new State law which would have required the sale of 15% of the City’s future water supply.

A legal career was always in the cards for Collyn. Her fascination with politics began in childhood and fueled her interest in law school. When she became the Dewitt and Lila Wallace Fellow as a law student at George Washington University—having previously attended CSPC’s Student Symposium as an undergraduate student at Rice University—Collyn was eager to learn about the policy-making process behind the scenes. She particularly enjoyed meeting with sub-cabinet officials who were not the face of government, but without whom society as we know it could not function. She weaved that interest into her research project for the Fellowship examining various White House staffing models and their relative effectiveness.

Upon graduating law school, Collyn expected to join the federal government as a regulatory lawyer, but the 1980’s political environment made that a difficult option so she charted a different path. She credits her ability to maintain a 38-year litigation and appellate practice in such a demanding profession to embracing change, reinventing herself when necessary, and developing new expertise as the legal field evolved.

Throughout her legal career, Collyn never lost her passion for politics. While her professional life led her to work on everything from national pharmaceutical litigation to cases she handled and argued in the Supreme Court, she kept a foot in politics in her personal life. In the late 1980s, she helped start a fundraising organization to raise the profile of women in politics. The group raised over $100,000 for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and served as the precursor to the DNC’s Women’s Leadership Council which is still in existence today. By the early-1990s, she was co-chairing fundraisers that raised over $1 million for the Clinton campaign.

Collyn’s love of politics and her legal experience eventually led her to her current work in the public sector. Working for the fourth largest city in America has taught Collyn about the enormous opportunities for change at the local level and the power that large cities can wield politically on issues of national importance.

Despite her passion for the law, her love of presidential politics remains strong. When asked about her dream job, without missing a beat Collyn replied, “White House Speech Writer.”