Caitlin Hatakeyama

Caitlin A. Hatakeyama is a Staff Attorney with the Public Benefits Unit. Prior to joining Legal Aid DC in May 2024, Caitlin represented community members caught in the criminal legal system as a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service of DC, argued bail hearings as an intern at the Arlington Public Defender Office, and conducted voting rights policy research as an intern at the Leadership Conference for Civil & Human Rights. She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2021 and her B.A. in Biology and Philosophy from Boston University in 2016.  

Passionate about oral advocacy, she led several seminars teaching trial advocacy to law students at PDS and her alma mater, the University of Michigan Law School. During law school, Caitlin was an executive editor for the Michigan Journal of Race & Law, was a quarterfinalist in the Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition, and co-led an abolition and collective liberation study group among her peers. Before law school, Caitlin worked at the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii, where she conducted intakes, assisted clients with Social Security Administrative appeals, and revised a Public Benefits Law Training Manual used at a statewide Public Benefits conference.