Virgil Roberts began his legal career in 1972 as an associate with a then prominent Los Angeles law firm, Pacht, Ross, Warne, Bernard & Sears.  There, he worked primarily as a business litigator.

In 1976, Roberts formed the law firm of Manning, Reynolds & Roberts, continuing his civil litigation practice and representation of entertainment clients.  Notable among the numerous civil rights and civil liberties matters handled by the firm was Roberts’ representation of the NAACP in the Los Angeles school desegregation case (Crawford vs. Board of Education).  He represented numerous clients in the music business, including Norman Whitfield (producer and songwriter who wrote and produced innumerable hit songs for artists such as the Temptations, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Rose Royce).  Among the best-known compositions written by Whitfield were “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and the “Car Wash” soundtrack album.  Roberts also represented music industry clients such as The Whispers, the Sylvers, Leon Sylvers, Cheryl Lynn, Martha Reeves and Associated Booking Corporation.

Roberts joined Solar Records as Executive Vice President and General Counsel in 1981, became President of Dick Griffey Productions (DGP) in 1982, and President of Solar Records in 1990.  As one of the most successful African American-owned record companies in the 80's, Solar had an impressive roster of gold and platinum selling artists including Babyface, The Whispers, The Calloways, Shalamar, Midnight Star, The Deele, Lakeside, Dynasty, Klymaxx, Absolute, Jody Watley, Howard Hewett, Jeffrey Daniel, Vanity, and Richie Havens.  As General Counsel, Roberts negotiated record and publishing deals with all of the artists, producers, and songwriters who did work with Solar, as well as distribution and license deals with all the major record distributors in the United States, and many independent distributors outside of the U. S.

In 1996, Roberts left Solar/DGP to form the law firm of Bobbitt & Roberts.  He is Managing Partner of the firm, which specializes in representing entertainment industry clients, concentrating on television, film, music, theater licensing, and merchandising.  Mr. Roberts has represented clients such as Usher, Kanye West, Chaka Khan, Blackground Records, Slip ‘n’ Slide Records, the Ruff Ryders, the J. Walter Thompson Agency, MTV and numerous other independent record labels, music producers, songwriters and recording artists.

Roberts has been active in the legal community over the years he has been in practice.  He has served as a board member and/or officer of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, the Beverly Hills Barristers Association, the Los Angeles Barristers Association, the Langston Bar Association, the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, the Beverly Hills Bar Scholarship Foundation, and the Black Entertainment & Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA).

He also has been very involved with many nonprofit and community service organizations.  He has served as Chairman of the Los Angeles Education Partnership, Treasurer of the Los Angeles Private Industry Council, Vice Chairman of the Public Education Fund Network, Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development, Board Member of Los Angeles Education Alliance for Restructuring Now, and as a Trustee of Marlborough School and Occidental College, and Chair of Usher’s New Look Foundation.  Roberts was past Chairman of the Board of the California Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization with more than one billion dollars in assets and also served as Board Chair of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP).  Under Roberts’ leadership, LAAMP raised and spent more than $120,000,000.00 to reform public education in the Los Angeles basin.  He has also served on the boards of The James Irvine Foundation, Occidental College, and Clairmont Graduate University.  Roberts is especially proud of his 20-year tenure on the Board of Directors of Broadway Federal Bank (10 years as Chair), the oldest Black managed financial institution in Los Angeles.  After leading the bank in a merger with City First Bank of Washington, D.C., which created the first publicly traded Black managed bank with more than a billion dollars in assets, Roberts retired from the Board.

Roberts’ current commitments include the boards of Community Build, an organization formed after the riots of 1992; the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools; Southern California Public Radio (LAist); and co-Founder and Chairman of African American Board Leadership Institute (AABLI), an organization formed in 2011 to recruit and train African Americans to serve on governing boards and commissions.

A frequent lecturer at law schools such as Harvard and UCLA, Roberts has participated in panel discussions for many organizations, among them the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters, BESLA, the National Association of Securities Professionals, and the American Law Institute.

Listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who among Black Americans, and as a Southern California Super Lawyer, Roberts has been honored by the Los Angeles Urban League, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the University of Southern California (USC) School of Education, the UCLA Black Alumni Association, and the California Legislative Black Caucus, and has been inducted into the BESLA Hall of Fame and the Langston Bar Association Hall of Fame.