Michelle N. Méndez serves as the National Immigration Project’s Director of Legal Resources and Training where she oversees the training, legal resources, and technical assistance curriculums, supervises the Motions to Reopen Project, and engages in litigation. Michelle also serves as the Program Director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s (NITA) Immigration Public Programs and, in 2019, NITA awarded her with the “Robert E. Oliphant Award for Outstanding Service.” Prior to this role she served as the Director of the Defending Vulnerable Populations Program at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) where she provided training and technical support to immigration practitioners nationwide, edited the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s “Representing Clients in Immigration Court” publication, engaged in federal litigation, supervised remote response projects, and, from 2015 to 2017, oversaw CLINIC’s role in the CARA Pro Bono Project in Dilley, Texas (now the Dilley Pro Bono Project).
Prior to CLINIC, Michelle served as senior managing attorney at Catholic Charities D.C., where she began as an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by DLA Piper. Michelle has taught the Immigration Litigation Clinic at Catholic University Columbus School of Law, was a Visiting Clinical Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, and assisted the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Michelle has been counsel on a variety of federal litigation matters before federal district courts and circuit courts, including Duncan v. Barr, 919 F.3d 209 (4th Cir. 2019).
Michelle holds a JD from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, a BA from the University of Richmond, a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Georgetown University, and a Professional Certificate in Peace and Conflict Resolution through the Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. She is a native Spanish speaker originally from Medellin, Colombia who is also fluent in French. Michelle is a proud resident of Baltimore, Maryland.
