L. Rachel Lerman has served as the Center’s Vice Chair for many years. She joined the Center as a full-time attorney in 2021. She earned her BA from Yale and her JD from Berkeley Law. At the outset of her legal career, she clerked for the late Hon. T.G. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. She was a partner in the appellate practice group at Akin and co-chaired the national appellate practice group at Barnes & Thornburg. During her years in private practice, she litigated federal and state appeals nationwide and engaged in pro bono work on behalf of asylum applicants, prisoners, and private citizens, winning recognition from the ACLU and Public Counsel. She is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and serves on the LA County Bar Association’s State Appellate Judicial Evaluation Committee.