Kate Melloy Goettel

Senior Legal Director

Kate Melloy Goettel is the Senior Legal Director at the American Immigration Council, where she leads impact litigation focusing on unlawful detention, the laws surrounding immigrant youth, interior enforcement, and family separation. Kate has practiced in nearly 40 federal district courts, eight courts of appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2019, Kate received the NGO Lawyer of the Year award from the Federal Bar Association’s Immigration Law Section. Before joining the Council, Kate was a litigator at the National Immigrant Justice Center, senior litigation counsel at the Department of Justice’s Office of Immigration Litigation, and a law clerk for a U.S. District Judge. Kate graduated with distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law where she is now an adjunct law professor. Before law school, Kate served in the Peace Corps in Kosrae, Micronesia.

*Not admitted in D.C. Practice limited to federal courts.

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