Rachel L. Welsh

Rachel L. Welsh (née Goodman) is an associate in Montgomery McCracken’s Litigation Department. She represents businesses, state entities, institutions of higher learning, and individuals while litigating cases, conducting independent investigations, and counseling clients on a diverse range of litigation and investigative matters.

Rachel’s trial and appellate advocacy skills have earned her professional acclaim and brought success to her clients. As an immigration attorney, she tried asylum cases, represented applicants at naturalization hearings, and defended her clients against deportation in federal immigration courts across the country. She also argued on behalf of a foreign national in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and has litigated appeals under the Pennsylvania’s Post Conviction Relief Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s King Bench Power of Extraordinary Jurisdiction. In law school, Rachel earned the Barrister Award for best performance in a trial advocacy course. She was honored for her appellate advocacy as the runner-up at Temple University’s prestigious I. Herman Stern Moot Court Competition and a semi-finalist at the University of Wisconsin’s Evans National Moot Court Competition.

Rachel’s practice also reflects her commitment to the firm’s pro bono work. As a volunteer with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s Supervision to Aid Reentry Program (Federal Reentry Court), she has represented clients in fraud, traffic, divorce, and custody proceedings. She won an appeal of a Pennsylvania juvenile lifer’s resentencing decision, earning her client eligibility for parole, and collaborated with the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Program (YSRP) to appeal the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ withholding of crucial parole policies. In addition, Rachel represented a mourning family in a New Jersey wrongful death action. Rachel’s work has also included family separation litigation, civil rights actions on behalf of incarcerated persons pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and criminal record expungements as well as appeals of criminal convictions, death sentences, and final orders of deportation.

Before entering private practice, Rachel was appointed a Foreign Service Consular Fellow by the U.S. Department of State, worked as a Spanish translator, and served as an editor for the Temple International and Comparative Law Journal in pursuit of her lifelong passion for international affairs and business. Rachel interned for the Honorable Gerald J. Pappert in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania as part of the Federal Judicial Clerkship Honors Program and piloted Temple Law School’s Third Circuit Litigation Clinic as its inaugural student-advocate. As a Beasley Scholar, she was awarded a full-tuition law school scholarship.