Leecia Welch has been the Deputy Litigation Director at Children’s Rights since 2021 and previously worked for 17 years at the National Center for Youth Law where she was most recently the Senior Director of Child Welfare and Legal Advocacy. Leecia is co-counsel in the seminal Flores v. Garland case, representing a nationwide class of detained immigrant children to enforce a settlement that governs their release and treatment in federal immigration custody. She also serves as class counsel for children in foster care in Washington, California and Kansas and has worked on successful damages cases and class action lawsuits on behalf of children in domestic foster care and federal immigration custody in Utah, Nevada, Missouri, and California. In addition, she is an adjunct professor at Berkeley Law School teaching a class focused on children’s impact litigation using the Flores case as a case study. Leecia has been recognized by the American Bar Association, the California State Bar, the Impact Fund, and was the 2021 Janet Reno Endowment Women’s Leadership Award.
