Public Counsel is thrilled to announce the selection of Rachel Stein as the new Directing Attorney for Public Counsel’s Audrey Irmas Project for Women & Girls’ Rights! Rachel is currently a Senior Supervising Staff Attorney in our Children’s Rights Project and brings a wealth of experience and knowledge, coupled with a background in social work, to this leadership role.
Rachel initially joined Public Counsel in 2012 as a staff attorney with our adoptions team. She returned in 2020 to lead the Children’s Rights Project’s Transition Age Youth team, where she has helped to expand and support the team to provide trauma-informed legal services to system-impacted youth in the areas of housing, family law, public benefits, traffic tickets, and name and gender change petitions. Additionally, Rachel led the team’s housing policy work and, in partnership with community-based coalitions and the office of Supervisor Hilda Solis, helped secure the passage of a motion that created contingency plans to help house the 1300 youth who were facing “the Extended Foster Care cliff” as they exited foster care from LA County in December 2021. Rachel has particular expertise in the areas of public benefits and housing for system-impacted youth.
Before transitioning to public interest work, Rachel practiced employment law at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and Fox Group Legal (21st Century Fox). She received her Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Michigan Law School and her Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Michigan School of Social Work. Rachel also clerked for the Honorable Cormac J. Carney in the United States District Court for the Central District of California after completing graduate school.
We are confident that Rachel’s extensive legal experience, dedication, and passion will be a tremendous asset to the Women and Girls’ Rights project. Please join us in congratulating Rachel! She will start her new role on May 15, and we are thrilled to work with her as we enter this next chapter of our Women and Girls’ Rights project.
