akimmel@publicjustice.net

Adele P. Kimmel is the Managing Attorney at the D.C. headquarters of Public Justice. She has served as counsel in a wide variety of precedent-setting cases, with a particular emphasis on civil rights issues. These cases include constitutional and tort cases on behalf of immigrant detainees and prisoners, Title IX sex discrimination class actions on behalf of women intercollegiate athletes, Title IX retaliation cases on behalf of intercollegiate coaches, Title VII employment discrimination cases based on race, national origin and sex, a Title VI race discrimination class action against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, First Amendment/free speech cases, and Fair Housing Act cases on behalf of people with disabilities.
 
Adele’s work on two groundbreaking cases—Castaneda v. United States, pending in federal district court in Los Angeles, and Castaneda v. State of California, tried in Los Angeles Superior Court—is serving as a catalyst for reforming the medical care provided to immigrant detainees.  Both cases involve wrongful death and survival claims on behalf of the family of Francisco Castaneda, an immigrant from El Salvador who had his penis amputated and died of penile cancer as a result of purposeful medical neglect while he was in California and United States custody. 
 
In 2010, Adele and her co-counsel obtained a $1.73 million verdict for Mr. Castaneda’s family in Castaneda v. State of California.  The Daily Journal, California’s largest legal news provider, honored that victory as one of the top California verdicts of 2010 based on its impact.  Castaneda v. United States, though not yet tried, has already had a major impact on detainee health care.  According to the testimony of federal employees, the case is used as teaching tool for detainee health care providers.  In addition, Mr. Castaneda’s case was featured in a joint investigative piece done by The Washington Post and 60 Minutes to expose the deeply flawed health care system for immigrant detainees.
 
Adele and her co-counsel also obtained an important victory for prisoners’ rights in Dillon v. Rogers, 596 F.3d 260 (5^th Cir. 2010), a case filed on behalf of a Louisiana man severely beaten by guards at the notorious, now-defunct Jena Correctional Facility.   The Court of Appeals ruled that the district court had improperly dismissed Mr. Dillon’s lawsuit for failure to exhaust administrative remedies and should have permitted him the opportunity to collect and present evidence concerning the “availability” of administrative remedies.  In doing so, the Fifth Circuit for the first time provided specific guidance to trial courts on the procedure for resolving disputes pertaining to exhaustion of administrative remedies under the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
 
In 2008, Adele and her co-counsel obtained a landmark $3.4 million settlement in Flood v. Florida Gulf Coast University on behalf of two former coaches for women’s intercollegiate athletic teams who charged the university with retaliating against them after they voiced concerns about gender inequities in the school’s athletic programs.  As part of the settlement, the school also hired an independent expert to assess and monitor its compliance with Title IX, the federal law prohibiting gender discrimination at schools receiving federal funds.
 
Adele is a former Chair of the American Association for Justice’s Civil Rights Section and has served on that Section’s Executive Board for over ten years.  Prior to joining Public Justice, she was a principal in a mid-sized, private law firm in Washington, D.C., where she represented plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases and litigated a wide variety of civil and commercial cases.
 
Adele received her B.A. degree with high honors from the University of Virginia, where she was an Echols Scholar, Phi Beta Kappa, and a participant in the Philosophy Honors Program.  She received an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Virginia in 1986, was selected to represent the Philosophy Department in the Society of Fellows, and received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1985.  She is admitted to practice in California and the District of Columbia.