Prior to joining Venable, Rita was an associate attorney in the Los Angeles office of a full-service international law firm, litigating product liability and consumer fraud matters. During law school, Rita served as a research assistant to the executive director of the UCLA Law Resnick Program of Food Law and Public Policy and wrote a thesis on the dynamic elements of the dairy industry. She also clerked at two California-based civil litigation law firms and served as a judicial extern for the Honorable David J. Cowan of the Los Angeles Superior Court.