Kristen Shepherd

Kristen E. Shepherd is a staff attorney and adjunct instructor for the Community Health Law Partnership Clinic (Community HeLP) at the University of Georgia School of Law. In this role, she supervises students as they engage in a variety of interdisciplinary services focused on the intersection of immigration status and health, including direct client representation, federal litigation, and project-based advocacy.

Shepherd has represented non-citizens in immigration proceedings since 2013. Most recently, Shepherd was an associate attorney at the law firm Socheat Chea, where she represented clients in affirmative, defensive, detained, and appellate immigration matters. She has also worked as a staff attorney at nonprofit organizations, including the nationally recognized Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle, Washington. In 2019, she traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to volunteer with asylum seekers stranded by the “Remain in Mexico” policy.  

She earned her undergraduate degree from Arizona State University and her Juris Doctor from Mitchell Hamline School of Law, where she received the Minnesota Justice Foundation’s Achievement in Public Service Award for completing over 600 hours of community service. Shepherd speaks Spanish and has studied abroad in Spain and Mexico.  

Shepherd maintains a membership in the American Immigration Lawyers Association and is currently an active member of the bar in the following jurisdictions: 

Georgia State Bar
Georgia Supreme Court
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit