Karen T. Grisez is the Pro Bono Counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP. After beginning her career as a litigation associate at Fried Frank, she managed the office’s pro bono program for over two decades. In that role, she provided supervision and direct representation to pro bono clients in immigration matters, as well as in traditional civil poverty law cases including veterans’ benefits, Social Security disability, family law and housing. Since early 2023, she has focused exclusively on the Firm’s immigration pro bono docket in both the New York and DC offices. Ms. Grisez has extensive litigation experience in federal courts, before the BIA and in Immigration Courts around the country. She is a frequent speaker and trainer on legal topics relating primarily to asylum, other forms of immigration relief, immigration court reform, detention, ethics, and representation of victims of torture and trauma. She has testified three times before Congress and once before the US Commission on Civil Rights as the ABA’s representative on immigration-related topics. Ms. Grisez is a member of the ABA, a former Chair and former member of its Commission on Immigration and the Working Group on Unaccompanied Minor Immigrants, and is also a member of the Advisory Board of the ABA's Immigration Justice Project in San Diego. She also previously served on the ABA Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service. Ms. Grisez is also a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and served for many years on its national Pro Bono Committee, and the DC Chapter’s Pro Bono Committee. She currently represents AILA in the ABA House of Delegates. Ms. Grisez is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a member of the Board of Directors of the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Washington Council of Lawyers and of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee of Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. She is a former Chair of the District of Columbia’s Advisory Committee on Pro Se Litigation, and practices in other courts in the District of Columbia and Maryland. She speaks Spanish and French.

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