Rachel Rossi is a seasoned attorney and criminal justice policy expert. Rachel has a decade of experience as a public defender in both federal and state criminal courts in Los Angeles, and in the drafting of criminal justice policy and legislation in Washington, D.C.

Rachel worked on criminal justice policy in Washington, D.C. on the House and Senate sides. As Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee, she led the Democratic Majority’s efforts to develop the next steps in criminal justice reform nationally. She worked with Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler and Judiciary Crime Sub-Committee Chair Rep. Karen Bass on drafting criminal justice reform legislation and holding Congressional hearings on the need for criminal justice reform. This included a hearing on California’s criminal justice reforms and a hearing on women and girls in the criminal justice system where Piper Kerman of “Orange Is the New Black” testified.

Prior to the House Judiciary Committee, Rachel was Counsel to Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Democratic Whip, on criminal justice. Rachel worked on multiple nomination hearings, including those for Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, and was the lead staffer on the First Step Act, the major federal criminal justice reform bill signed into law in December 2018. The First Step Act enacted comprehensive sentencing and prison reforms and has resulted in thousands of people being released from federal prison to date.