Ava Benach

Ava Benach is a founding partner of Benach Collopy. For nearly twenty-five years, Ava has navigated clients through the maze of immigration law. Ava has concentrated her practice on representing clients in removal proceedings and in litigation matters before the federal courts. She also has extensive experience advising clients on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and complex citizenship and residence questions. Ava was identified as being a “go-to attorney when it comes to representing individuals in complex government cases” and at the “forefront of an emerging generation of litigators” in the immigration field by Chambers International.  In June 2017, Ava was awarded the Edith B. Lowenstein Award for Excellence in Advancing the Practice of Immigration Law by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

Ava has represented clients in immigration courts across the country, addressing cutting edge issues in asylum, the immigration consequences of criminal convictions, jurisdiction and due process, and eligibility for relief, such as 212(h) waivers of inadmissibility and cancellation of removal.  Ava also brings actions in federal court to challenge unreasonable or delayed government decision-making and to ensure that her clients rights are protected.

Ava has served on the Amicus Committee of the AILA helping to set nationwide litigation strategy for the organization. In this capacity, Ava took a lead role in challenging state immigration laws in South Carolina and Alabama. Ava has also served on the national AILA liaison committee to Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), representing the concerns of immigration lawyers among top ICE officials. In the organization’s local chapter, Ava served as Chair of the Litigation Committee and as Pro Bono Coordinator.

In addition, Ava is active in local immigration charities and organizations.  Ava has taken a lead role in representing transgender asylum seekers before the asylum office and the immigration courts.  She has pioneered an innovative collaboration with Whitman Walker Health to provide quality representation to transgender immigrants while training the next generation of lawyers in representing LGBT immigrants. In May 2017, Whitman Walker Health honored Ava with the Fenner Award for Community Service for her work representing Whitman Walker clients.   She served for a decade as a member of the Board of Directors for the Capital Area Immigrant Rights Coalition, where she worked to protect the rights of immigrants in the detention system. In the Fall of 2011, Ava was a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University Law School, where she co-taught the immigration clinic.

Prior to forming Benach Collopy, Ava was a partner in the nationwide immigration practice at Duane Morris. She joined Duane Morris after leading the litigation practice at Maggio & Kattar for several years.

Ava is a 1998 cum laude graduate of George Washington University Law School and a graduate of Boston College. She is fluent in Spanish.