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Los Angeles civil rights firm Public Counsel announced on Wednesday the selection of lawyer and law professor Monica Ramirez Almadani, the daughter of Mexican immigrants who settled in Huntington Park, as the next president and CEO.
The appointment, which will take effect in June, is the result of months of searching for a new head of Public Counsel after retired U.S. District Judge Margaret Morrow announced her imminent departure after 5 1/2 years at the helm of the nation’s greatest pro- Bono law firm that recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Ramirez Almadani, who will also hold the Distinguished Chair of the CEO of Helen & Morgan Chu, has nearly two decades of experience advocating the rights of underserved communities locally and nationally.
She is currently Professor of Clinical Law and Co-Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the UC Irvine School of Law. She began her career with the American Civil Liberties Union after working for the late Justice Warren J. Ferguson of the US 9th Court of Appeals.
Ramirez Almadani continued to lead initiatives, investigations and precedent litigation on behalf of vulnerable communities across the country in the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice, where she served as advisor to then-Assistant Attorney General and former US Secretary of Labor, Thomas E. Perez during Obama’s first term -Government.
She also served as the assistant chief of staff and senior adviser to former Assistant Attorney General James M. Cole in Washington, DC, and the federal prosecutor in the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Division of the US Attorney General in Los Angeles.
“Since serving in the Department of Civil Rights at the Department of Justice, where she led our reform efforts, I have valued Monica as a passionate, dedicated, and accomplished advocate for the needy and at risk,” said former US Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., “Your authenticity is palpable, its effectiveness evident. I am confident she will lead Public Counsel with the same integrity, vision, and compassion that she has shown throughout her career. “
Ramirez Almadani said her parents, Salvador and Irma, immigrated to the United States to give their daughters greater opportunities.
“Public Counsel’s mission and its clients are very personal to me,” said Ramirez Almadani. “My family’s own journey and the strength and resilience of the community I grew up in inspired me to pursue a career advocating social, economic and racial justice.
“Families and communities with low incomes or people living in poverty, who are mostly colored people, face a multitude of challenges that the pandemic has only exacerbated – many systemic and long-standing, and some difficult to imagine a year, ”she said. “I am proud and humble to have the chance to lead a talented, diverse and passionate staff, as well as countless volunteer lawyers and law students, to stand up for and serve those in need at this unique moment.”
LA Civil Rights Law Firm Appoints New CEO was last changed: April 7, 2021 by
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