Biography
Matt Adams is the legal director for Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), where he has worked for the past 25 years. NWIRP provides direct representation to persons applying for immigration benefits and defends persons who have been placed in deportation/removal proceedings. Mr. Adams has represented hundreds of immigrants before the Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Federal Courts, including presenting arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of two classes of detained individuals. His work focuses on impact litigation in the federal courts. Mr. Adams has successfully presented claims in twenty published decisions before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and has been appointed as class counsel for several successful class action cases, including serving as lead-counsel for two nationwide classes vindicating the rights of asylum seekers. He was awarded the Jack Wasserman Memorial Award for Excellence in Litigation from the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in 2008, and again in 2014 a part of legal team in Franco-Gonzalez v. Holder, No. CV-10-02211 DMG DTBX, 2014 WL 8115423 (C.D. Cal. 2013), which for the first time established the right to appointed counsel at government expense for a category of persons in removal proceedings. The Washington State Bar Association awarded him with the 2016 Award of Merit, its highest honor. He has also been awarded the 2013 Access to Justice Advocacy Award, and the 2008 Access to Leadership Award from the Washington State Bar Access to Justice Board. In 2005 he was given the Washington State Chapter AILA Award for Most Significant Impact in Litigation. He currently serves on the advisory committee for the National Immigration Litigation Alliance.