Ariel Rawls is an Attorney at Grossman Young & Hammond who focuses her practice on humanitarian immigration and international human rights law. She has represented clients in their petitions for affirmative and defensive asylum, deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture, status under the Violence Against Women Act, and reopening with the Board of Immigration Appeals. Ariel additionally represents clients before INTERPOL, successfully challenging persecutory Red Notices and securing their deletion. Ariel has extensive experience in international human rights law. She has represented clients before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and supported members in sessions of the U.N. Committee Against Torture and the International Law Commission.

Prior to joining the firm, Ariel was an advocate for refugees and immigrants in her community, serving as a student attorney at her law school’s International Human Rights Law Clinic and as Director of the school’s chapter of the International Refugee Assistance Project (WCL IRAP). She additionally interned at the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch and the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. She graduated from American University Washington College of Law magna cum laude and was one of two students in her graduating class to be named by the faculty as an outstanding J.D. graduate. Ariel extensively contributed to her school’s chapters of the International Refugee Assistance Project and International Law Students Association. She additionally co-founded the school’s Refugee Law & Migration Studies Brief.