Kerry E. Doyle has more than twenty-five years of experience in the immigration and refugee law and policy arena having recently served as Deputy General Counsel (DGC), Office of General Counsel (OGC), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Biden Administration. As DGC, Ms. Doyle oversaw the immigration portfolio and the Immigration Division at OGC, as well as previously managing the Regulations, Intelligence, and Operations and Enforcement Law Divisions of OGC. From this position, she managed and oversaw a number of the most significant policies and regulations that were promulgated by DHS during 2024. Ms. Doyle came to OGC from her presidential appointment in 2021 as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Principal Legal Advisor (General Counsel) with the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA), leading the more than 1,700 OPLA attorneys and staff across the country.
Following her service at DHS, Ms. Doyle was appointed by the Attorney General as an Immigration Judge in the Chelmsford, Massachusetts Immigration Court in December 2024. Her service was cut short in February 2025 due to the current administration’s interest in reducing staffing in the federal government.
Prior to DHS, Ms. Doyle was managing partner of a small immigration firm focused on complex removal cases and federal litigation. She also worked in Boston, Miami and Hong Kong for several non-profit organizations managing their legal departments. She taught Refugee and Asylum Law as an adjunct professor at University of Miami School of Law and Immigration Law at Suffolk University School of Law.
In addition to this work, she was appointed to two three-year terms as a voluntary hearing officer by the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers to preside over cases related to attorney disciplinary matters from 2016 through 2021.
She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, the Supreme Court Bar and the bars of Several
Federal Courts of Appeals and District Courts. Kerry E. Doyle earned a Bachelor of Arts from The George Washington University, and a Juris Doctorate cum laude from the American University, Washington College of Law.