NEW YORK, NY, August 30, 2022 – Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP announced today the addition of Carmen Iguina González, who joins the firm as counsel in Washington, DC. A nationally renowned civil rights attorney who has dedicated her career to advancing the rights of immigrant communities, Ms. Iguina González previously served as Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project in Washington, DC. Ms. Iguina González has also served as a law clerk for Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the US Supreme Court, Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and Judge Kiyo Matsumoto of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Ms. Iguina González is an experienced litigator who specializes in appellate and complex civil litigation and who has substantial experience representing clients in matters related to administrative, constitutional, and civil rights law. She has won landmark immigrants’ rights and criminal justice cases, advocated for the rights of asylum seekers, unaccompanied immigrant children, families, and other immigrants seeking refuge in the United States, and has worked with federal, state, and local governments to enact policies aimed at protecting immigrant communities.
“I am so excited that Carmen has joined us as Counsel. Carmen is exactly the kind of lawyer we want at Kaplan Hecker – someone who fights passionately for the interests of her clients, whether companies, individuals or the thousands of asylum seekers and other immigrants whose rights she has protected, allowing countless people to remain with their families in the United States,” said Kaplan Hecker & Fink founding partner Roberta (“Robbie”) Kaplan. “Carmen brings not only an incredibly impressive resume of academic and legal accomplishments, but also determination, grit, and creativity to the practice of law.”
“I am thrilled to join Kaplan Hecker & Fink at this stage in my career,” said Ms. Iguina González. “The firm has proven itself to be a cutting-edge, high-stakes litigation practice with an equally strong commitment to the public interest. I look forward to working alongside an incredible team and growing my practice, in particular in the areas of constitutional law, appellate litigation, gender equity issues, congressional investigations, while of course continuing my work in immigrants’ rights.”
Prior to joining the ACLU as Senior Staff Attorney, Ms. Iguina González was an associate for Jones Day, where she represented clients in multifaceted civil, criminal, and administrative matters as an attorney in the Issues and Appeals practice group. She also maintained an active pro bono docket, which included traveling to Laredo Detention Center in Texas, as part of the Laredo Project. The project provides legal counsel, as well as legal education, to thousands of asylum seekers detained by the US government.
Ms. Iguina González was also an Equal Justice Works Fellow, and then a staff attorney, at the Southern California affiliate of the ACLU, where her work included acting as counsel in the first case that established a right to appointed legal representation for any group of immigrants facing deportation. This case, Franco v. Holder, requires the federal government to provide legal representation to immigrants with serious mental disabilities.
Ms. Iguina González graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and from New York University School of Law, where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. In 2022, Ms. Iguina González was recognized by the Hispanic National Bar Association among their “Top Attorneys Under 40.” She has also been recognized as a 2018 “40 Under 40 Rising Star” by the NYU Law Alumni of Color Association, in 2016 as a California Attorney of the Year (Immigration), and in 2014 was awarded the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Jack Wasserman Memorial Award.