Austin Immigration Lawyer
Austin Immigration Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch practices immigration law because she works with wonderful clients who are experiencing significant and emotional life changes. Kate enjoys celebrating with her clients when they achieve their immigration goals, such as obtaining citizenship or the right to live and work in the US, and she also has great compassion for how hard and stressful it can be to face losing immigration status or being separated from loved ones.
As a native Texan, this Austin immigration lawyer found law after working in the technology sector. Kate yearned for meaning in her work and chose law school hoping to find a way to incorporate service in her career. While at the University of Texas School of Law, she joined the Immigration Clinic. Her first assignment as a student attorney was to conduct an intake with a family of Iraqi citizens who were being detained at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas, as they sought asylum in the United States after suffering severe persecution in their home country. Her clients were distraught to be in a prison with their infant daughter who had not been permitted to go outside in days. At the conclusion of her meeting with the parents, the baby's desperate mother asked Kate if she would sneak the baby out of the prison. It was this moment when she decided on a career fighting for justice for immigrants.
Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch was the recipient of an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in 2008. She completed her fellowship at American Gateways (formerly the Political Asylum Project of Austin), a non-profit organization devoted to securing justice for low-income immigrants in the Central Texas area. Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch fellowship project served the detainees at the T. Don Hutto Detention Center during which she provided representation and rights presentations to the immigrant women and families detained there. She also served as the pro bono coordinator for American Gateways.
After her fellowship, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch entered private immigration practice. Her practice encompasses a variety of immigration cases including temporary visas, adjustments of status, naturalization, and consular processing, as well as removal defense, VAWA (Violence Against Women Act), and crime victims' visas. Her firm offers high quality legal representation in an accessible and empathetic environment.
In 2010, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch received the Contribution to Minority Community Award from the Travis County Women Lawyers' Association. Since the unfortunate resurgence of family detention in 2014, Kate has been active in providing and recruiting pro bono representation for the detained women and children at the Karnes Detention Center and she serves on the Advisory Committee for the Karnes Pro Bono Project. As an Austin immigration attorney, she has also been engaged as a speaker at various forums in the field of immigration law. She is a fluent Spanish speaker. Her most important accomplishment of all is her family: her precious daughter Nora and her husband Josh.
EDUCATION
The University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TX J.D. May 2008
The University of Texas, Austin, TX Bachelor of Science December 2004 with honors
MEMBERSHIP and SERVICE
Casa Marianella – board member
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Pro Bono liaison for the Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico Chapter
National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild
Austin Bar Association; 2015 Leadership Academy member
Austin Young Lawyers Association
Austin Bar Association Solo & Small Firm Section – board member 2011-present
Hilde Girls – an Austin women’s singing group providing benefit concerts to various organizations, including Global Camps Africa, GEN Austin, Caritas of Austin, American Gateways, Truth be Told, Hospice Austin, and Austin Families in Nature.
Travis County Women Lawyers Association – board member 2013-present