Margot Mendelson, J.D.

Margot Mendelson is an Associate at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld in San Francisco, where her practice primarily focuses on civil rights and prison litigation. Margot was one of the lead attorneys in a recent trial challenging California’s solitary confinement practices as they relate to prisoners with psychiatric disabilities. She has also been actively engaged in defending against a termination motion by the State of California in the Coleman v. Brown case concerning prisoners with psychiatric disabilities.

She received her B.A. from Harvard College, magna cum laude, and her law degree from Yale Law School. She served as Law Clerk to the Hon. Catherine Blake, United States District Judge, District of Maryland, and Law Clerk to the Hon. Diana Motz, United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit; she was an Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, Immigration Clinic.

RBGG reaches settlement in complex class action regarding individuals with psychiatric disabilities

Publications

“Constructing America: Mythmaking in U.S. Immigration Courts,” 119 Yale L.J. 1012 (2010)

“Collateral Damage: An Examination of ICE’s Fugitive Operations Program,” Migration Policy Institute, Feb. 2009 (with Shayna Strom & Michael Wishnie)

“Liberty & Security: Recommendations for the Next Administration and Congress,” The Constitution Project (Nov. 2008) (contributing author)

“The Legal Production of Identity: A Narrative Analysis of Conversations with Battered Undocumented Women,” 19 Berkeley Women’s L.J. 138 (2004)

“Life & the Law: Battered Undocumented Women,” Harvard Rev. Of Latin America, 2003

“Document Gathering for Self-Petitioning Under the Violence Against Women Act: A Step-by-Step Guide,” Immigrant Legal Resource Center, March 2003