Rachel Rossi | |
|---|---|
 Rossi in 2022 | |
| President ofAlliance for Justice | |
| Assumed office May, 2025 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1983 (age 41–42) |
| Alma mater | Bethany University (BA) Pepperdine University (JD) |
Rachel Rossi (born 1983) is an American lawyer and public official. She is the President ofAlliance for Justice and formerly served as the Director of the Office for Access to Justice at theUnited States Department of Justice. Rossi has worked as apublic defender inLos Angeles County, and as criminal justice counsel toDemocratic SenatorDick Durbin and for theUnited States House Committee on the Judiciary,Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. Rossi was the first former public defender to run for the nonpartisan seat ofLos Angeles District Attorney.
Rossi grew up in theSan Gabriel Valley region of Southern California. She attendedClaremont High School before earning her bachelor's degree fromBethany University and aJuris Doctor from thePepperdine University School of Law. She has lived most of her adult life inLos Angeles County, California and is a daughter of immigrant parents born in theDominican Republic andGreece.[1][2]
From 2011 to 2019, she was a county and federal public defender in Los Angeles;[3][4] she has said that defending clients who were generally low-income and people of color, many of whom had sufferedhomelessness,mental illness or drug abuse, gave her a passion for justice and reform.[1]
She then became criminal justice counsel to Dick Durbin,Senate Democratic Whip and Chairman of theUnited States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, working onSupreme Court nominations including those ofNeil Gorsuch andBrett Kavanaugh. She served as lead staffer on the 2018First Step Act, which seeks to reduce recidivism and established federal prison reform.[3][1]
Rossi was then recruited to be Counsel to theUnited States House Committee on the Judiciary,Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.[5] She worked with Judiciary ChairmanJerry Nadler and Crime Subcommittee ChairKaren Bass on criminal justice reform legislation and congressional hearings.[5]
In November 2019, Rossi announced she was running as the first former public defender candidate forLos Angeles County District Attorney.[3] Rossi faced incumbentJackie Lacey and formerSan Francisco DA,George Gascón.[6] During her campaign, she criticized the Los Angeles legal system, pointing out that 80% of prisoners there are black or Latino, and one in three suffers from some form of mental illness.[7][8] Rossi was five points shy of qualifying for the runoff election, receiving almost half a million votes.[9]
In November 2020, Rossi was named a member of the Agency Review Team for thePresidential transition of Joe Biden to support transition efforts related to theUnited States Department of Justice.[10] In 2021, Rossi was appointed Deputy Associate Attorney General in the Office of theUnited States Associate Attorney General, Vanita Gupta. On May 20, 2023 President Biden and Attorney General Garland appointed Rossi as Director of the Office for Access to Justice in theUnited States Department of Justice.[11]
In May of 2025, Rossi was named the President ofAlliance for Justice, a progressive judicial advocacy group in the United States.[12]
In 2019 Rossi was recognized by theNational Bar Association as one of the United States' top 40 lawyers aged under 40.[13] She has been recognized as a Lawyer of Color during theCongressional Black Caucus Foundation conference.[14]