Rose Cahn

Heising-Simons Foundation, Program Officer - Human Rights Program

Rose Cahn is a nationally recognized expert in the field of immigrant post-conviction relief, currently holding the position of Program Officer for the Heising-Simons Foundation’s Human Rights Program. 

Prior to this role, Rose led the Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s pro bono Immigrant Post-Conviction Relief Project. With over 15 years of experience working in the field of immigrant rights, and a special focus on the intersection of criminal and immigration law, Rose is a frequent speaker and trainer on the subject.  Rose has co-authored several manuals including, California Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants (Tooby) and Helping Immigrant Clients with Proposition 47 and Other Post-Conviction Legal Options: A Guide for Legal Service Providers (Californians for Safety and Justice). Rose spearheads federal, state, and local advocacy to help advance the rights of immigrants with criminal convictions and assist providers in understanding how to better serve this population.  She is one of the principal drafters of California Penal Code § 1473.7, a landmark piece of legislation that created a legal mechanism to vacate unconstitutional convictions. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the National Clean Slate Clearinghouse and is on the Steering Committee of the American Immigrant Representation Project.

Before working at the ILRC, Rose was a Senior Soros Justice Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she founded the nation’s first Immigrant Post-Conviction Relief Project. Prior to that, she litigated post-conviction relief cases at the Law Office of Norton Tooby and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Rose graduated cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Root Tilden Kern scholarship. Rose lives in Oakland, CA with her family and their dog.