Kennji Kizuka

As an IJC Fellow on the Refugee Representation team, Kennji is helping to extend Human Right First’s capacity to assist asylum seekers. He will directly represent clients who would not otherwise have had legal counsel in proceedings before the New York Asylum Office and the New York Immigration Court.

Prior to joining Human Rights First, Kennji clerked for the Honorable Rosemary S. Pooler on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. During law school, he interned for the Norwegian Refugee Committee’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia, and the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. Kennji has directly represented clients through the Capital Area Immigrant Rights Coalition and the California Asylum Representation Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law. Before law school, Kennji worked for Human Rights Watch in their Children’s Rights Division.

Kennji received a juris doctor degree, Order of the Coif, from the UC Berkeley School of Law. He holds a master’s degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.