Elizabeth Schmelzel has dedicated her career to the practice of immigration law. After law school, she completed a fellowship at Ayuda in Washington, D.C., and then worked for four years at the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, defending noncitizens held in detention centers. She began teaching as an adjunct at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School in 2019, where she now directs the immigration litigation field placement program. She joined the Legal Aid Justice Center in the fall of 2023 and serves as director of UVA Law’s Immigration Clinic.
Schmelzel was raised in Southern Illinois and moved to Washington, D.C., for college. She received her undergraduate degree from George Washington University and her master’s degree in human rights from the London School of Economics. She went on to earn her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, focusing on immigration and criminal defense.