Carmen E. Atkins is an accomplished immigration attorney, legal advocate, and clinical educator with a distinguished record of public interest litigation, transnational legal reform, and community-centered representation. She brings nearly two decades of experience in direct immigration legal services, constitutional advocacy, and experiential legal education—uniquely qualifying her to lead and expand clinical legal programs rooted in social justice.

Most recently, a partner at the Law Offices of Robert M. Bell, P.A., in Hollywood, Florida, Ms. Atkins represents individuals and families in complex immigration matters, including removal defense, family- and humanitarian-based petitions, naturalization, and employment- and investment-based immigration. Her practice is rooted in individualized legal strategies and client empowerment, particularly for marginalized immigrant communities.

Ms. Atkins’ public interest career spans multiple legal systems and regions. She previously served as Liaison to the Ecuadorian Congress with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where she played a key role in drafting Ecuador’s landmark immigration legislation and aligning it with international refugee protection norms. Her litigation and advocacy in Latin America resulted in landmark victories, including constitutional actions restoring the Cartagena refugee definition in Ecuador and international proceedings before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights that held the State of Guatemala accountable for forced disappearances, among others.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and UNHCR twice honored the judgments in her strategic litigation with the First and Second Place “Sentencias” Awards as the most progressive immigrants’ rights jurisprudence in the Americas. While her passion is in immigrants’ rights, Prof. Atkins began her career at the prestigious law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where she advised mega-cap companies on capital markets and mergers & acquisitions.

A proud graduate of UC Berkeley School of Law (J.D., 2008), Ms. Atkins received the Brian M. Sax Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy, awarded annually to the student who best exemplifies the mission of Berkeley Law’s clinical program. Her foundational training in clinical education sparked a long-standing commitment to mentorship and pedagogy in experiential legal education.

She earned her B.S. in Hotel Administration from Cornell University (2001), where she was a Dean’s List scholar and member of the Ye Hosts Honor Society.

Ms. Atkins is fluent in English and Spanish, and conversational in Italian, French, and Portuguese. She draws upon her multicultural background—Peruvian and Nicaraguan—as a source of deep empathy and cultural fluency in serving immigrant communities.

She is admitted to the California Bar and currently serves as consulting immigration counsel to the Ecuadorian American Chamber of Commerce, the Consulates of Colombia and Ecuador in Miami.

In her free time, she enjoys homebrewing, cooking, and cycling.