Immigration Law Section: Federal Immigration Litigation

**Webinar hosted in (ET) Time Zone**

The Immigrant Law Section’s Newer Lawyers Division invites you to the first of a three-part series on federal immigration litigation. This first webinar will discuss the nuts and bolts of federal litigation within an immigration law context, by focusing on initial filings.

Registration is Closed

Presented by the Immigration Law Section

Presenters

Christopher W. Dempsey, principal of Dempsey Law PLLC

Christopher W. Dempsey, principal of Dempsey Law PLLC, served with the Office of Immigration Litigation at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. for over a decade.  He retired in March 2018 as the Chief of the National Security and Affirmative Litigation Unit within his Section, where he supervised a team of attorneys conducting national security and immigration-related, affirmative and defensive litigation in district courts and courts of appeal across the nation.  Mr. Dempsey supervised all national security litigation of an office with over 75 attorneys, regularly trained Department attorneys in Washington, D.C. and the National Advocacy Center, and instructed agency attorneys and law enforcement officers at venues throughout the United States.  Prior to his work at the Justice Department, Mr. Dempsey served on active duty with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps then remained active trying criminal cases in the Army Reserves.

Mr. Dempsey has significant litigation experience.  He has appeared in thirty-nine U.S. District Courts and eight U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, tried seventeen jury cases and over fifty bench trials, and handled dozens of appeals. Mr. Dempsey is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”), and currently serves as an Executive Director and Chair of the Litigation & Collective Advocacy Committee of the Central Florida Chapter (“CFC”) of AILA, regularly provides instruction as faculty at national immigration seminars, and is routinely sought out for his expertise in immigration matters by attorneys across the nation.

Elizabeth J. Stevens, Attorney of Counsel, Amaryllis Law

Elizabeth J. Stevens received her J.D. magna cum laude from the George Mason School of Law in 2001.  After clerkships with the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, the Arlington Immigration Court, and the Board of Immigration Appeals, she became an Assistant Director with the Office of Immigration Litigation’s (OIL) District Court Section.  After retiring from DOJ at the end of 2016, Ms. Stevens joined the Poarch Thompson Law Firm, now Amaryllis Law, specializing in citizenship law, immigration agency processes, immigration detention, and litigation of immigration-related issues in the U.S. Court system.

Ms. Stevens serves on the Federal Bar Association’s (FBA) Government Relations Committee, became a Life Fellow of the Foundation of the FBA in 2023, is a former Chair of the FBA’s Immigration Law Section, and was one of the principal drafters of the FBA’s Article I Immigration Court model bill.  She continues to actively promote the adoption of an independent Article I immigration court, and testified before Congress in 2022, on behalf of the FBA, regarding the Real Court, Real Justice Act.