Alicia Virani (she/her) joined Public Advocates in 2025 as a Senior Staff Attorney on the K-12 Education Equity Team. Prior to joining Public Advocates, Alicia was the Director of the Criminal Justice Program at UCLA School of Law where she directed a policy and research agenda focused on issues of pretrial justice, alternatives to incarceration and restorative justice. There, she created and taught two classes: the Pretrial Justice Clinic and Reenvisioning the Lawyer’s Role: Trauma-Informed Lawyering and Restorative/Transformative Justice. Previously, Alicia was a Deputy Public Defender in Orange County where she litigated misdemeanor and felony cases as well as represented parents in the dependency system. Prior to that, Alicia was awarded an Equal Justice Works Fellowship through which she created and implemented a restorative justice youth diversion program housed at The California Conference for Equality and Justice. Alicia was named UCLA Law’s Professor of the Year in 2022 and awarded UCLA Law’s Public Interest U. Serve L.A. award in 2025.
Education
Alicia received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 2011 with a certification in Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Law and Policy as well as an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA. She received her B.A. in 2005 from Vassar College.