
Maha Ibrahim
Staff Attorney
Area of expertise: Education civil rights; Sexual violence & harassment in higher education; Title IX public policy; Gender discrimination in high schools; Community advocacy & community lawyering; Client relationships
You want to get to know her because:
- When she came to ERA in 2016, Maha had seven years of professional community organizing and policy-framing experience as an East Bay political staffer.
- Maha brings her experience in hands-on community relations and training as a public interest lawyer through the lens of Critical Race Theory to her work as a Staff Attorney at ERA, and is a true “boots on the ground, heart in the community” attorney.
- Maha was part of the ERA legal representation that negotiated a $1 million (+) settlement for women working in non-traditional fields
- Maha’s representation of education clients has contributed to over $1 million in settlements for Title IX complainants, as well as far reaching, multi-year programmatic monitoring and policy reform, over the last two years.
- Maha is a lead author of ERA’s school and education district, campus, and legislative law and policy models
- She has authored ERA’s forthcoming report on high school gender recruitment for STEM programs and works closely with local student groups on their civil rights under Title IX.
- She was a staff member in the district offices of Congresswoman Barbara Lee (2006-2009) and former State Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (2009-2012) before entering UCLA Law.
- She is a graduate of UCLA’s Epstein Public Interest Law Program and a student in the law school’s Critical Race Studies program.
- Maha was a founding board member and co-director of the UCLA Law Women, an executive board member of the Journal for Islamic and Near Eastern Law, and a two-term executive board member of UCLA Law’s 40+-year-old student-founded and student-coordinated network of volunteer legal aid clinics, El Centro Legal.
Alumna of:
- Maha is a proud product of the California Community College System. She attended Riverside Community College from 2002-2004, and served as the district’s student trustee from 2003-2004. Additionally, Maha is a graduate of the Mills College Institute for Civic Leadership (2006 cohort).
- A graduate of UC Berkeley (2006) and UCLA School of Law (2015)
Outside of work:
- Maha is active in numerous East Bay community organizations and has served as a former commissioner on the Alameda County Commission on the Status of Women as well as board member to various bay area women’s political groups.
- Maha is an active parent leader in her son’s school’s Parent Faculty Association.
- Maha is an ardent devotee of the importance of mentorships, both as a mentor and a fortunate mentee of amazing women and girls and some outstanding men.