Lynden Melmed

Lynden Melmed is a Partner with Berry Appleman and Leiden LLP (BAL) and oversees the firm’s compliance and government affairs practices. Before joining BAL, Mr. Melmed served as Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), that agency’s highest-ranking legal position. As Chief Counsel of USCIS, he managed a legal program of approximately 130 attorneys and was a key advisor to senior leadership within USCIS, DHS, the White House, and other federal agencies on all aspects of immigration law. He is the current Chair of the MPI Board of Trustees.

Prior to his appointment as Chief Counsel, Mr. Melmed served as Special Counsel to Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who at that time was Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Citizenship. In that capacity, he was involved in oversight of federal immigration agencies and played a leading role in drafting and managing the comprehensive immigration legislation that passed the U.S. Senate in 2006. Earlier in his career, Mr. Melmed served as an attorney in the General Counsel’s offices of INS and DHS, where he focused on immigration benefits, visa, and border security issues. Before joining the federal government in 2002, Mr. Melmed spent four years in private practice in Dallas, first at Jackson Walker LLP and later at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy LLC.