SEATTLE, December 07, 2011 - Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ:SBUX) today announced that Paula Boggs will retire as general counsel and secretary on April 2, 2012.

In June Boggs will join President Obama’s reelection campaign. Based in Seattle and Santa Fe, she will be volunteering as an advocate for the campaign in communities across the country. In 2010 Boggs was appointed by President Obama to the White House Council for Community Solutions whose work is focused on identifying, highlighting and enabling innovative community solutions to youth unemployment.

Starbucks chairman and ceo Howard Schultz said, “Paula is an exemplary leader and has built a world class legal team. I am personally grateful for her friendship, counsel and dedication to and passion for her fellow partners (employees) and the communities Starbucks serves around the world. She is leaving Starbucks in a better place than when she arrived, we wish Paula the very best and we will miss her.”

Boggs, 52 and an Army veteran, has led the Law & Corporate Affairs department for nearly ten years, advising on a broad range of legal and business issues. She joined Starbucks in September 2002 from Dell Computer Corporation. The company has initiated a search for Boggs’ replacement in April.

Boggs said, “I am honored and humbled to have led a world class legal department that has also set the bar for diversity in the legal profession and in providing legal services to the poor. It has also been my privilege to be part of this incredible phenomenon called Starbucks for the past decade. I have never experienced an organization with the heart, determination and imagination of Starbucks. I will deeply miss my fellow partners and the many friends I have made here as I turn to this very exciting and important experience awaiting me next spring. I began my career in public service and in support of a President. I could not be more grateful or inspired to once again have that full-time opportunity.”

In addition to serving as secretary of the Starbucks Foundation, Boggs is an active volunteer in both legal and civic organizations. Along with her White House Council service, she is currently Washington’s State Delegate to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) House of Delegates, is a Johns Hopkins University Trustee, is a member of the American Red Cross Board of Governors, is immediate past co-chair of Washington’s Campaign for Equal Justice, and is an advisory board member of listener-supported radio station KEXP.

Boggs is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences ("The Grammys") and among her honors, in 2009 NASDAQ named her its "Top General Counsel.”