Federal Rights Project Staff

Rochelle Bobroff, Director

Rochelle worked with AARP Foundation Litigation (AFL) from 1999 until recently. She has long been well known to NSCLC and other public interest organizations through her work on federal rights and low-income elder law issues. A particular symmetry exists because Rochelle’s very first legal job was working as a law clerk for Herb Semmel at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Before going to AFL, Rochelle began her legal career in 1987 as a staff attorney for the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, addressing Medicaid, SSI and other federal benefits issues. Practically all of her career since then has been devoted to public interest and high-level federal rights issues.

Simon Lazarus, Public Policy Counsel

Si is responsible for the Washington DC advocacy effort of the project. Si has served as Associate Director of President Jimmy Carter’s White House Domestic Policy Staff (1977-81), as a partner in Powell, Goldstein, Frazer, and Murphy LLP (1981-2002), and as Senior Counsel to Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP (2002- ). He is a Trustee of the Center for Law and Social Policy, and writes frequently on issues of law and policy. His articles on federal rights have appeared in the Atlantic, the Washington Post Outlook (Sunday opinion) Section, the Democratic Leadership Council’s magazine Blueprint, and The American Prospect. His Atlantic Monthly article, “The Most Dangerous Branch?”, has been republished in two anthologies, The Best American Political Writing 2003 Royce Flippin, ed. (Avalon Press 2003), and Principles and Practice of American Politics: Classic and Contemporary Readings, 2d ed., Samuel Kernell and Steven S. Smith, eds. (CQ Press 2003). He graduated from Yale Law School, where he was Note & Comment Editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Herbert Semmel, Founder

The Federal Rights Project was founded by Herbert Semmel, who worked in NSCLC's Los Angeles office from 1994 until his death in February 2004. Before coming to NSCLC, Herb had won several important cases on behalf of disabled and disadvantaged people. You can read more about Herb and how you can keep his project alive on NSCLC's Memoriam page.