Rosa Hirji, Esq.
Executive Director
Rosa is the Executive Director of Community Lawyers Inc. Rosa previously served for 10+ years as a member of the Board of Community Lawyers Inc., and one term as its President. Through her leadership on the Board, CLI was approved by the State Bar of California to receive funding as a Legal Services Organization. CLI experienced a significant set-back in funding and staff during the COVID pandemic. The Board hired Rosa in 2023 as its Executive Director with a charge to rebuild the organization.
Thus far, Rosa’s success includes hiring and training highly qualified legal services staff, expanding CLI’s legal clinic offerings, and increasing its revenue through grants, individual donations and litigation fees. This year, CLI’s reinvigorated impact is felt throughout the communities we serve. In 2023 alone, CLI has provided legal services and vital assistance to an average of 200 consumers per month in the areas of immigration, tenant’s rights, family law and special education.
Rosa has a solid background in organizational building, nonprofit development and management of legal services. She has previously served as the Executive Director of the General Assistance Advocacy Organization, a Program Director for CADRE, and a founding member of the Dignity in School’s Campaign. She is also the founder and managing attorney at the Law Offices of Hirji & Chau, LLP. Rosa’s litigation experience includes representing children with a wide range of disabilities in disability and civil rights matters. Her practice has a public interest orientation directed toward obtaining relief for clients that also serve to positively impact young people and their communities as a whole. Rosa has written many articles for the American Bar Association and published chapters in two books on the issue of children’s rights, disability discrimination and the school to prison pipeline.
In addition to her service as CLI’s Executive Director and her legal practice, Rosa is a founding member of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court Education Panel, a lecturer at the People’s College of Law, is a recent past co-chair of the Children’s Rights Litigation Committee of the Section of Litigation, American Bar Association. In 2004 she was awarded Outstanding Committee Chair Award by the American Bar Association for her work related to children with disabilities. This year, she is being honored for her work by the People’s College of the Law.