Joined January 2024
Rachel Goldberg presently serves as General Counsel to the City of Stamford, Connecticut Urban Redevelopment Commission

Rachel Goldberg maintains a private law practice that is focused on real estate development and consulting on matters of gender identity employment discrimination. Until her retirement in February of 2017, Rachel had, for 35 years, also served as General Counsel for the City of Stamford’s Urban Redevelopment Commission. Her work for the City of Stamford involved managing the Commission’s real estate and development activities, including some of the most successful projects in Connecticut. She is currently President Elect of the National LGBTQ+ Bar Foundation (after serving two years as Treasurer). She is also a James W. Cooper Life Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. She served on the Connecticut Law Tribune’s Editorial Board from 2013 through 2019. Between 2014 and 2021 Rachel served on the Lambda Legal National Board of Directors, as Co-chair of the Administration and Finance Committee and a member of the Executive Committee and Audit Committee and the last three years as Treasurer.

Attorney Goldberg successfully petitioned the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) to issue the Doe Declaratory Ruling which determined, in 2000, that Connecticut’s non-discrimination laws protect individuals from discrimination based on gender identity and expression. Attorney Goldberg worked to secure passage of “An Act Concerning Discrimination” (PA 11-55) which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression in employment, public accommodations, the sale or rental of housing, the granting of credit, and other laws over which CHRO has jurisdiction, making the Doe Declaratory Ruling’s protections explicit and uniform. In 2013 she worked with Lambda Legal and others to obtain a directive from the Connecticut Department of Insurance confirming that PA 11-55 prohibits health insurance policies issued in Connecticut from including blanket exclusions of gender transition related services. In 2015 she helped secure passage of “An Act Concerning Birth Certificate Amendments” (PA 15-132) which modernized Connecticut’s standard for allowing transgender and intersex people to correct the gender designation on their birth certificates. In 2004 she was a member of the Connecticut Hate Crimes Network which helped pass “An Act Concerning Hate Crimes” providing enhanced penalties for criminals who choose their victims because of their physical or mental disability or because of their gender identity or expression. In 2018 she received the Community Champion Award from Connecticut’s Triangle Community Center and in 2016 she was a recipient of the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund’s Maria Miller Stewart Award. In 2011 she was honored for her work by Lambda Legal and named one of the “Dozen Who Made a Difference” by the Connecticut Law Tribune.

In 2010 Attorney Goldberg served on the committee formed by the University of Connecticut in response to Connecticut Special Act No. 09-2 to prepare and issue the “University of Connecticut Stamford Campus Garage Study;” which explored the feasibility of leveraging the garage land to maximize UConn’s long term educational objectives and to generate revenue to support those objectives. In 2007 Rachel served on the Study Committee examining business relocation benefits in Connecticut for a report submitted to the Connecticut General Assembly. In 2006 she served on the Brownfield Acquisition Task Force of the National Association of Local Government Environmental

Professionals and the Brownfield Communities Network to prepare and publish “Superfund Liability: A Continuing Obstacle to Brownfields Redevelopment.”

Between 2003 and 2006 Rachel served with a national coalition of attorneys and activists on the committee which drafted the transgender inclusive version of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). She served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Gender Public Advocacy Coalition, a non-profit human rights organization based in Washington, D.C. from 2002 through 2008 (including 3 terms as Co-Chair, 2 as Secretary, and 2 as Treasurer).

Ms. Goldberg has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University and a Juris Doctorate from Quinnipiac University School of Law.