Kaitlin is an ILD Founding Managing Attorney, where she leads ILD’s pro bono law firm partnerships and provides direct representation to clients throughout California, with a particular focus on supporting clients through ILD’s Legal-Education partnership with the Oakland Unified School District, a unique program that provides direct representation to K-12 students and families in removal proceedings. Kaitlin specializes in asylum cases and other forms of humanitarian relief and has dedicated her career to the representation and advocacy of asylum seekers.

EXPERIENCE Prior to co-founding ILD, Kaitlin worked in leadership at two Bay Area non-profit organizations serving immigrant clients: Centro Legal de la Raza and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA). She has also worked as an attorney with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the U.S. Legal Unit, where she focused on statelessness work and helped draft the legislation and policy changes to address the issue of statelessness in the U.S. Kaitlin previously worked as a deportation defense attorney at Van Der Hout LLP, as a contract attorney with the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies and the CSS/Newman Special Master of Appeals, and with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant. Throughout her career, Kaitlin has developed innovative models to expand the availability of immigration legal services by leveraging resources in the private Bar and has built solid and effective partnerships with private law firms committed to pro bono immigration work. She has trained and mentored hundreds of law firm associates and partners working on defensive asylum, affirmative asylum, and U Visa cases. Kaitlin has developed a unique clinic model that allows non-profits to serve a high volume of asylum seekers and applicants for humanitarian relief by utilizing law firm volunteers and has helped launch a Volunteer Interpreter Project and a Pro Bono Mental Health Project, both of which enable clients to access essential services vital to their immigration cases.

EDUCATION Kaitlin holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Boston University and a J.D. from UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings College of the Law). She is a member of the California bar and is fluent in Spanish.