3L Khatia Mikadze Named 2021 Gallogly Public Interest Fellow
April 2, 2021
American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL) is proud to announce the selection of 3L student Khatia Mikadze as fellow for this year’s Gallogly Family Foundation Public Interest Fellowship Program.
Jim Gallogly and his family started the Gallogly Family Foundation in 2011. His daughter, Kasey DeLuke, is the foundation’s executive director and a 2009 graduate of AUWCL. The foundation’s giving is focused on educational opportunities and land conservation. Modeled after the Skadden Public Interest Fellowship program, the Gallogly Foundation Fellows work for nonprofit organizations that provide direct legal services to low-income individuals and/or those deprived of their civil or human rights.
“We are very lucky to have Khatia as a fellow. Her experience and dedication to serving others is impressive and she will be an excellent advocate for immigrants,” said DeLuke.
During the Gallogly Fellowship, Mikadze will partner with the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition in Washington, D.C. to represent individuals in immigration detention in the DMV area.
Championing Immigration Rights
At AUWCL, Mikadze is a student-attorney with the Immigrant Justice Clinic, and serves a senior staff member of the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and Law. She is also co-director of International Refugee Assistance Project student chapter at AUWCL, where she oversees refugee resettlement cases from the Middle East. During law school, Mikadze has clerked for the New York Supreme Court as a Celina & Sonia Sotomayor Judicial Fellow.
Prior to attending AUWCL Mikadze – a native of Tbilisi, Georgia – graduated from CUNY with a degree in International Relations and Sociology and worked at various non-profit organizations, managing the largest immigration legal services programs for NYC local government and providing direct representation to detained immigrants and refugees in Texas and Italy.
As a fellow at CAIR, Mikadze will help identify detained immigrants with bond and merit cases who are entitled to relief because of recent federal litigation, bridging the gap between impact litigation and direct representation on the ground. Mikadze’s project will also identify best practices in bond and merits representation and build further representation capacity in our community by assisting organizations that do not traditionally represent detained clients through the creation of training materials for clinics, pro-bono attorneys, and clients themselves.