Kate Lebeaux (’15) Receives Department of Justice Attorney General’s Honors Fellowship

KIND volunteer and clinic student will spend two years as a fellow at Boston Immigration Court.

Boston University School of Law student Kate Lebeaux (’15) has been selected for a fellowship from the Department of Justice Attorney General’s Honors Program, the largest and most prestigious federal entry-level attorney-hiring program of its kind. Selection criteria include a demonstrated commitment to government service, academic achievement, leadership, legal aid and clinical experience, past employment, and extracurricular activities.

Lebeaux, who has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to helping immigrant populations throughout law school, will complete her two-year fellowship at Boston Immigration Court, where she interned during her 2L summer. In her full-time role, she will perform legal research and draft bench memos and decisions for deportation cases, such as asylum cases, for seven immigration judges.

In fact, Lebeaux came to BU Law knowing that she wanted to study immigration law and, specifically, to participate in the Immigrant Rights’ Clinic.

A Spanish and music major at Bowdoin College, Lebeaux spent two years after graduation in Madrid working in a bilingual elementary school, then at a Boston immigration firm helping clients prepare immigration applications and deportation defenses. She entered BU Law in fall 2012, and began volunteering with Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), a nonprofit legal services organization that matches unaccompanied immigrant children with local pro bono attorneys to help them obtain legal status and avoid deportation.

“I really enjoyed working with the children at KIND, most of whom are teenagers from Central America, as well as learning more about the pro bono model that many legal services organizations use,” says Lebeaux. She enjoyed the work so much that she spent the summer after her 1L year interning at KIND full time.

The internship energized Lebeaux, who felt very ready to take on the challenges of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, in which she participated throughout her 2L year. Working with clients including a teenager from El Salvador applying for his green card, a Syrian family applying for asylum, and a Ugandan woman seeking relief under the Violence Against Women Act, Lebeaux learned how to be an effective advocate for her clients.

“Through the classroom portion of the clinic, I learned various techniques and strategies for working with clients in a variety of settings,” she says. “This helped me immensely when I worked with clients who often had difficult situations and decisions to make.”

Lebeaux also appreciated the hands-on approach of the clinic supervisors, the broad scope of immigration law and services she experienced, and the opportunity to handle her own cases. “The experience made me more confident not only in my legal writing, research, and advocacy, but also in my client counseling skills,” she says. She has stayed on with the clinic as a research assistant through her 3L year.

Lebeaux credits these and additional opportunities—namely, two spring break pro bono trips at ProBar in south Texas and a particularly valuable immigration law survey course—at BU Law for bolstering her dedication to immigration law.

As she looks ahead to her fellowship, Lebeaux expects that much of her work at the Immigration Court will focus on factually or legally complex cases. In many deportation cases, immigration judges issue oral decisions, and may reserve written decisions for cases that require more extensive legal research or a closer examination of the facts.

“I got a sense of this during my internship at the Court,” she explains. “One of my assignments required that I research how recent Supreme Court decisions may have affected the retroactive application of a certain waiver, which allows some immigrants facing deportation to stay in the country. I spent a couple of weeks researching and thinking through the issue, and ultimately the judge agreed that under current case law, the waiver applies retroactively. It felt amazing to be a part of this development, and I can’t wait to have similar opportunities during my fellowship.”

Lebeaux is not the only BU Law affiliate to receive this honor this year: Michelle Martínez (’14), a BU Law Public Service Fellow working in the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, has also accepted a Department of Justice Attorney General’s Honors Fellowship. Martínez will spend the next two years as a fellow in the Executive Office of Immigration Review in New York.

Kate Lebeaux (’15) will spend the next two years as a Department of Justice Attorney General’s Honors Fellow, working in Boston Immigration Court.