UCLA School of Law has announced that Rose Chan Loui will join the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy as the inaugural director of its Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofits, beginning October 1. Loui joins from Rodriguez, Horii, Choi & Cafferata LLP, one of the country’s leading boutique law firms serving nonprofits.

Launched in 2021 with a $3.7 million seed gift from alumnus Lowell Milken ’73, the Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofits aims to become a national resource for scholarship and policy analysis of the rapidly shifting nonprofit sector. Loui will work with Jill Horwitz, the inaugural faculty director of the program and David Sanders Professor of Law and Medicine, to develop and refine the vision of the program. Horwitz, a recognized authority on nonprofits and health care law and policy, recently served as the Reporter of the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, Charitable Nonprofit Organizations, the first on the subject

“I am excited to help shape the Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofits into the leading space for scholars, students and practitioners who work with nonprofits and who have to confront difficult legal and practical problems in this important and growing area of our economy,” said Loui. “I have spent most of my professional life working with the sector, so it will be a labor of love to be at the center of a program devoted to understanding the needs and challenges of nonprofits, especially at this time of rapid change.”

Loui will work with Horwitz in advancing the program’s priorities, including training the next generation of nonprofit lawyers, developing scholarship, and bringing together the sector’s many stakeholders. They will develop events and curriculum for practitioners and managers of nonprofits in such areas as governance, lobbying and compliance.

Loui is an expert on tax-exempt organizations, with a history of working with nonprofit organizations to structure and implement their advocacy and lobbying programs, as well as representing nonprofits, businesses and individuals in federal and state tax controversy matters. Loui started her legal career at Latham & Watkins in Los Angeles. Experienced in for-profit matters as well, she worked in-house at ARCO and Deloitte & Touche, where she handled tax controversies. She has been active in numerous local nonprofits throughout her career. She currently serves as board chair of East West Players, the nation’s premier Asian American theater. A graduate of Stanford University, where she majored in communications and international relations, and New York University School of Law, where she was an editor of the NYU Law Review, Loui looks forward to joining the Bruin family.

“We are thrilled that Rose will join UCLA Law as the inaugural director of our program, lending her expertise, knowledge, and creativity to make us a leading voice in this area,” said Horwitz. “There are many legal, operational, and governance issues that need the attention of lawyers and policymakers. With Rose at its helm, we know that the program will make a significant difference to scholars who write about nonprofits and to practitioners who advise them.”