Leecia Welch is the Deputy Litigation Director at Children’s Rights in New York City. She was previously the Senior Director of Child Welfare and Legal Advocacy at the National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) for seventeen years. She specializes in class action litigation designed to improve the lives of children in state and federal foster care. She is currently class counsel in the Flores v. Garland case, representing a nationwide class of detained immigrant children to enforce a settlement that governs their release and treatment in federal immigration custody. She has served as class counsel for children in foster care in Missouri and Utah – and currently represents classes of children in foster care in Washington and Kansas. Ms. Welch has also worked on successful damages cases, impact cases, and class action lawsuits on behalf of youth in Nevada, California and nationwide.
Prior to joining NCYL in 2004, Ms. Welch was a senior associate in the litigation department at Morrison & Foerster LLP, and spent three years focusing her time nearly exclusively on Williams v. State of California, a class action that resulted in increased funding, oversight and resources for California’s public education system.
She has been recognized by the American Bar Association, the California State Bar, and the Impact Fund, and received the 2021 Janet Reno Endowment Women’s Leadership Award.
Education
B.A., Northwestern
J.D., Loyola Chicago School of Law
Leecia Welch is not teaching any Law courses in Fall 2024.
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Spring 2024 | 281.41 sec. 001 | Litigating Children's Civil Rights: The Immigration Crisis | View Teaching Evaluation | Spring 2023 | 281.41 sec. 001 | Litigating Children's Civil Rights: The Immigration Crisis | View Teaching Evaluation |
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