Sunil R. Varghese

Of Counsel

* Admitted in New York only. Not admitted in the District of Columbia. Practice limited to matters before U.S. government agencies and under the supervision of D.C. Bar member, Jamison B. Taylor.

Sunil Varghese is Of Counsel at RISM LLC, where he focuses on immigration law with particular emphasis on humanitarian protections, asylum and refugee law, and complex family- and employment-based immigration matters. He brings over 15 years of legal and policy experience across government, private practice, and nonprofit leadership.

Before joining RISM LLC, Sunil served as Senior Director of Global Policy at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), where he led the organization’s international and domestic advocacy to improve access to protection for displaced individuals. He previously served as Counsel to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee, advising on immigration legislation and oversight.

Sunil spent more than seven years in leadership, training, and adjudication roles with the Refugee, Asylum, and International Operations Directorate of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), including as Deputy Director of the Newark Asylum Office and Special Assistant to the Chief of the Asylum Division. Earlier in his career, he was the Asylum Program Attorney at the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas and an associate at Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.

An active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), Sunil served on AILA’s National Asylum & Refugee Committee from 2021 to 2023. He is also a Truman National Security Project Fellow.

Sunil earned his law degree and a Certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies from Georgetown University Law Center. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the University of Texas at Austin.

Admitted in New York only. Not admitted in the District of Columbia. Practice limited to matters before U.S. government agencies and under the supervision of D.C. Bar member, Jamison B. Taylor.