Kayla Crowell represents clients in all facets of commercial litigation. Prior to joining the firm, Kayla served as a law clerk to Judge Jon S. Tigar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and Judge Richard A. Paez of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Kayla earned her law degree from Yale Law School, where she was a practical scholarship editor for Yale Law Journal and features editor for Yale Journal of International Law. She also worked as a legal intern for the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Kayla earned her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in Romance Languages from the University of Georgia. Before beginning her legal career, she taught English in Thailand and worked as a legal assistant at an immigration law firm in Atlanta, Georgia. Kayla speaks French and Spanish.
In conjunction with the ACLU of Northern California and Centro Legal de la Raza, we filed a class action challenging ICE’s policy of re-detaining people it had previously released, without any legal basis for re-arresting them. The court provisionally certified a class and stayed ICE’s policy of re-arresting asylum seekers and others who had been lawfully released without any material change in circumstances. ICE later stated that the court’s decision rendered ICE “non-operational” in the Bay Area.
We secured the release of Gennel Miles, Jr., who had spent 16 years in prison on a life sentence without parole on a murder conviction obtained under California’s former felony-murder law. As part of Keker’s Felony Murder Resentencing Project, which was initiated after California reformed its felony-murder law in 2019, we pursued a new evidentiary hearing for Gennel, ultimately uncovering evidence undermining the original conviction and obtaining a plea agreement for his release.
A man imprisoned for 16 years under California’s former felony murder rule has been ordered released following a successful resentencing effort by Keker, Van Nest & Peters’ Felony Murder Resentencing Project, a pro bono initiative that has helped seven individuals reduce or overturn their life sentences to date since criminal justice reforms were enacted in California in 2019. Read more
In reporting on the status of President Trump’s mass deportation agenda in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Standard covered a series of federal court rulings that rebuke the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including three cases brought by Keker, Van Nest & Peters and its nonprofit partners. Read more
A federal judge has temporarily blocked ICE from re-arresting and re-detaining law-abiding immigrants in an order that recognizes the “extraordinary pace and scale of the change” in immigration enforcement. Read more
A federal district court in California has blocked the Trump administration’s policy of unlawfully re-arresting and re-detaining immigrants the government previously released from custody after concluding they were neither dangerous nor a flight risk. Read more
Keker, Van Nest & Peters attorneys Ellen Watlington and Claire Bonelli appeared in court with co-counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday to challenge the government’s "unprecedented campaign" of rearresting immigrants who have previously been detained and released by the government, The Recorder reported. Read more
Keker, Van Nest & Peters has joined civil rights groups in challenging ICE's practice of re-arresting and re-detaining immigrants already cleared by the government. ABC10 and other news outlets covered a hearing in the case in federal court in San Jose on Tuesday, during which attorneys from the ACLU Foundation of Northern California and Keker argued to stay the ICE practice Read more
At Keker, Van Nest & Peters, pro bono work is an integral part of our firm. From challenging illegal mass deportation tactics, to pushing for criminal justice reform, to fighting for the rights of individuals and families, our attorneys take up causes that encapsulate our belief that lawyers have a duty to protect the rule of law and ensure access to justice. Read more
For decades, the federal government has allowed immigrants who do not pose a danger to the community or a flight risk to remain out of custody during ongoing removal proceedings if they comply with their conditions of release. In May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement abruptly changed course and began unlawfully re-arresting and re-detaining people across Northern and Central California despite having no reason to believe they are dangerous or likely to flee. Read more
A Law360 report describes how Keker, Van Nest & Peters partner Erin Meyer and associates Jonhatan Aragon and Kayla Crowell acted quickly to secure the release of two asylum seekers unlawfully detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and save them from being deported. Read more
We are now more than four months into the second Trump administration. In that time, the administration has sought to enact seismic changes throughout government, including at the U.S. Department of Justice. With regard to white collar enforcement trends, a few early expectations have materialized. But as to many others, the Trump administration clearly defied initial predictions as to the degree or nature of certain policy shifts. Read more
In an article for Law360, Keker attorneys Brook Dooley, Cody Gray, and Kayla Crowell analyze factors bearing on Trump’s ability to affect the U.S. Department of Justice’s day-to-day operations and preview for white-collar practitioners some of the administration’s likely enforcement priorities. Read more
Staying The Course Amid Seismic DOJ White Collar Changes, Law360, co-authored with Brook Dooley and Cody Gray (2025)
How White Collar Enforcement May Shift in Trump's 2nd Term, Law360, co-authored with Brook Dooley and Cody Gray (2024)