Lena F. Masri, Esq. serves as General Counsel of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Founder and National Legal Director of the CAIR Legal Defense Fund. In these roles, she supports CAIR’s national civil rights mission by providing legal guidance on litigation, compliance, governance, and organizational risk, and by overseeing strategic civil rights litigation on behalf of the American Muslim community.

Ms. Masri helped establish the CAIR Legal Defense Fund in 2017 and has overseen its growth into a leading national civil rights litigation practice serving the Muslim community. The Legal Defense Fund’s work includes litigation challenging the federal watchlist, defending the rights of incarcerated Muslims under RLUIPA, and addressing workplace discrimination, religious accommodations, constitutional rights, due process violations, and other systemic civil rights issues.

Before joining CAIR National, Ms. Masri served as Legal Director of CAIR-Michigan. She is licensed to practice law in Michigan, New York, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

Ms. Masri was named Advocate of the Year by the Muslim Bar Association of New York in 2024. She was also recognized by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 2013 and 2014 for her civil rights advocacy and pro bono legal services for indigent clients, and received the RARE Everyday Hero Award from Winning Futures in 2014 for her “extraordinary commitment, integrity, selflessness and courage to changing lives and inspiring others.”

Ms. Masri regularly speaks to legal, professional, and community audiences on civil rights, workplace religious discrimination, religious freedom, and issues affecting the American Muslim community. Her work has been featured in national and regional media outlets, including CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, Reuters, the Associated Press, Law360, the Detroit Free Press, and the Detroit News.