Miguel C. Keberlein

Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society

As Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society (LAS), Miguel C. Keberlein leads LAS’s efforts to provide equal access to justice for all. With an extensive background in law, immigration, human trafficking and in unifying the equally important work of legal and social services, Keberlein drives LAS’s work to integrate legal aid into the holistic support offered by Metropolitan Family Services.

By shaping LAS’s services into Practice Groups – Health, Housing, and Economic Stability; Safety and Family; and Individual Rights and Social Justice – Keberlein has positioned the organization to better serve clients and to support expansion. Under his leadership, LAS programming now offers more extensive assistance for domestic violence survivors and their families, as well as legal services tailored for families in Metropolitan’s Community Schools programs, Gerst Family Young Fathers Program, and Communities Partnering 4 Peace (CP4P) initiative.

Keberlein joined the Legal Aid Society from the Legal Assistance Foundation (LAF), where he served as Director of the Immigrants and Workers’ Rights (IWR) Practice Group. In that role he led the Group’s statewide strategy and initiatives, directed LAF’s Migrant Project, litigated federal and state cases, as well as supervised a team of attorneys. Keberlein also served as Director of LAF Client Support Services; he integrated social work services into all of LAF’s practice groups, directed the agency’s efforts to train staff in providing traumainformed services, and furthered LAF’s ability to secure grants requiring social work case management.

Keberlein helped create the Illinois Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking, which LAS now chairs. He is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the National Employment Lawyers Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. He has been admitted to the State Bars of Illinois and Wisconsin, and has been admitted to practice in the 5th and 7th Federal Courts of Appeals.

His honors include being named a 2020 Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow, a Chicago Community Trust Fellow, and one of Chicago Daily Law Bulletin’s “40 Under 40.” In addition, Keberlein has lectured extensively on issues related to immigration and human/labor trafficking.

Keberlein earned his Juris Doctor degree in 2002 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. He holds a Master’s degree in Third World Development Support from the University of Iowa, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from St. Norbert College.