Donise E. Brown, Esq.
Director, Corporate Counsel, Real Estate, Law & Corporate Affairs, Starbucks Corporation
Coral Gables
Florida
Donise E. Brown is a Director-Corporate Counsel for Starbucks Corporation. As Director Corporate Counsel for the Company’s Legal & Corporate Affairs Department (L&CA), Donise is responsible for providing legal support for all of Starbucks’ real estate matters in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Florida Regions. She also serves as lead counsel for company-wide implementation of best management practices in accordance with various municipalities’ regulations in response to EPA Clean Water Act. In addition to providing legal services for Starbucks, she serves on and is a past Chair of the L&CA Diversity Committee which is responsible for, among other things, overseeing the surveying and review of its outside counsel annually to ensure that the firms retained by Starbucks reflect a commitment to diversity.
Prior to joining Starbucks, Donise served as Chief Counsel for Cell Siting and Land Use and Assistant Secretary for AT&T Wireless. In her role as Chief Counsel, she managed a national legal team that was responsible for supporting the build out of the Company’s wireless network throughout the United States. She was responsible for the successful integration of the cell site leasing function of Wireless One and TeleCorp acquisitions and served as Lead Counsel for Multi-Carrier project which involved four independent wireless companies jointly responding to Request for Proposals from New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority for major wireless infrastructure build-outs. She also successfully chaired the Legal Department’s 2005 United Way Campaign.
As the first African American attorney at Florida Power & Light Company, Donise worked as a Principal Attorney providing advice and counsel to the Land Management, Environmental, Telecommunications, and Commercial departments on various legal issues, including: real estate, corporate policy programs, governmental, environmental, insurance, personnel, and preventive law. She also participated in Company’s Professional Rotation Program and work at the Florida Capital with company lobbyists during the 1990 State Legislative Session.
Donise has also worked as Corporate Counsel for The Greyhound Corporation; and as an associate for Winston & Strawn, LLP.
Donise is a Florida Bar Certified Diversity Facilitator. She is a member of the 2015 National Pre-Law Diversity Initiatives, Inc. Host Committee, the Sedgwick Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, past member and vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Professionalism for the Florida Bar, past Chair of the Florida Bar’s Grievance Committee 17E-Broward County, and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the National Bar Association’s Commercial Law Section.
Some of her other professional and community affiliations include: the American Bar Association, Arizona Bar Association, Corporate Counsel Women of Color, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Association of Corporate Counsel-South Florida Chapter, International Council of Shopping Centers, The Links, Incorporated, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and Jack and Jill of America, Inc.
Donise frequently participates as a speaker and panelist on topics related to her practice area and on the subject of diversity and inclusion. Her most recent honors and recognitions include: the National Bar Association- Young Lawyers Divisions “The Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. Memorial Award,” Florida Bar Association “Meritorious Service Award” in 2015 & 2013, 2013 National Diversity Council’s “Glass Ceiling Award,” and ICABA‘s 2009 “South Florida’s 100 Most Accomplished Blacks in Healthcare & Law”.
Donise is a graduate of Howard University School of Law. She received her Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts Degrees, cum laude, from Tuskegee University. She and her husband, Richard, are the proud & exhausted parents of teens, Matthew and Hannah.