Board Members

Roger A. Lowenstein, Esq.
Los Angeles Leadership Academy

Mr. Lowenstein has been an educator for more than twenty years, teaching law at Seton Hall University in Newark, New Jersey, and at Occidental College in Los Angeles. In addition to practicing as a criminal defense attorney, he has been a television drama writer since moving to Los Angeles ten years ago. He serves on the boards of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, and the Progressive Los Angeles Network. His success in political fundraising, external relations and team building also prepare him for this newest endeavor.

Roger Lowenstein was compelled to found an innovative new charter school to create a remedy for students underserved by oversized schools. He is particularly interested in countering ethnic segregation in Los Angeles by creating a public space where youths from different backgrounds can come together to investigate and address social justice issues. Since leadership is currently taught most frequently and effectively to business school students who are largely from privileged backgrounds, he feels it is essential to cultivate leadership and civic engagement in students from all backgrounds, who may then become motivated to work in the public interest.

He earned his B.A. from the University of Michigan, his J.D. from Harvard, and is a veteran of more than 25 years as a trial attorney in New Jersey, where he served in both the civil and criminal areas as a state public defender, a prosecutor and with his own firm. In 1973, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals appointed him the first Federal Public Defender for the District of New Jersey—a post held until 1978. In addition to law practice, Professor Lowenstein was an adjunct professor at Newark’s two law schools, Seton Hall, where he created the media law program, and Rutgers-Newark. He also taught at Occidental College and at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.

In 1990, he moved to Los Angeles where he wrote and produced programs that included L.A. Law, Equal Justice, The Great Defender and several other shows with legal themes. Professor Lowenstein established the Los Angeles Leadership Academy in the city’s Wilshire Center area in 2001 with the help of grants from the California Department of Education, the National Council of La Raza and other funders. The school’s mission is to create public sector leaders by preparing inner-city students in grades 6-12 for college and graduate school. He was elected to Southwestern’s Board of Trustees in 2004.

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