About Virgil Roberts
Founding Board
Partner, Bobbit & Roberts Law Firm
Virgil Roberts graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in Political Science and spent a year doing graduate studies in International Relations and Constitutional Law. After attending Harvard Law School, where he received his Juris Doctor degree in 1972, he joined the firm of Pacht, Ross, Warne, Bernhard and Sears.
In 1976, Mr. Roberts formed the law firm of Manning & Roberts, specializing in civil litigation practice and representation of clients primarily from the recording industry. In addition, he represented the NAACP in the Los Angeles school desegregation case, Crawford vs. Board of Education.
Mr. Roberts joined Solar Records as Executive Vice President and General Counsel in 1981. He became President of Dick Griffey Productions in 1982 and President of Solar Records in 1990. In April of 1996, he teamed up with another attorney to form the entertainment law firm of Bobbitt & Roberts of which he is the managing partner. Their practice concentrates on television, film, music, theater licensing, and merchandising.
Numerous community and professional organizations of which he is a current or past board member and/or officer include the Beverly Hills Bar Association, Beverly Hills Barristers Association, the Langston Law Club, Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, California Teacher Credentialing Commission, and the Black Entertainment & Sports Lawyers Association.
Currently, Mr. Roberts is Chairman of the Board of the California Community Foundation, Chairman of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP), a Board Member of the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now (LEARN), and Vice Chairman of the Public Education Fund Network. In 1990 and 1991, he served as Chairman of the Los Angeles Educational Partnership and continues to serve on its Board.
Mr. Roberts is presently listed in a number of biographical collections, including Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who’s Who Among Black Americans, and has been honored for his service to the community by the Los Angeles Urban League and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the University of Southern California (USC) School of Education. He was a Foreign Affairs Scholar after graduating from UCLA, and at the Harvard Law School, a recipient of the Felix Frankfurter Scholarship. He was a recipient of the 1998 ROSE Award, acknowledging his efforts to advance knowledge and practice in the field of education. Virgil and his wife, Brenda, are the proud parents of two daughters, Gisele Simone, who is attending college at the University of Michigan, and Hayley Tasha, a high school student in Los Angeles.