Carol Chodroff

Carol Chodroff is a California attorney, and a national expert on juvenile justice. She has worked on behalf of court-involved children, youth, and young adults for over twenty years as a teacher for youth in the juvenile justice system; a federal public defender representing youth and adults in the juvenile and criminal justice systems; a policy attorney; staff counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary; Director of the Los Angeles Opportunity Youth Collaborative; Chair of the Working Group for Oversight of the Los Angeles County Probation Department. She currently works as a panel appellate attorney for the First District Appellate Project. Chodroff began her career as a consultant for the Delancey Street Foundation, where she worked on the juvenile justice reform initiative for the city and county of San Francisco, and helped create a charter high school for court-involved youth. She later served as a federal public defender in San Diego, California, and as the U.S. Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch in Washington, D.C. She then worked in Congress as Special Counsel to Congressman Bobby Scott, and as staff counsel for the United States House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary under Congressman John Conyers, Jr. She oversaw legislation on a wide range of issues within the Judiciary Committee’s jurisdiction, and served as lead counsel on the Youth PROMISE Act, and other legislative initiatives affecting vulnerable and court-involved youth. After moving to Los Angeles, she worked for the Alliance of Children’s Rights as the Director of the Los Angeles Opportunity Youth Collaborative – a multi-agency, cross-sector initiative to improve education and employment outcomes for foster and crossover probation youth, and she served as Chair of the Working Group for Oversight of the Los Angeles County Probation Department. Chodroff holds a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law; a Masters in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education; and, a Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University. She is a member of the bars of the United States Supreme Court; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; the U.S. District Court, Southern District of California; and, the Supreme Court of California.