Juan Cruz Monticelli is originally from Argentina and has spent most of his professional life in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, working with communities across the United States and the Americas. From the beginning, law appealed to him as a way to help people fight for justice. He was drawn to the idea that we are all equal before the law and that, when the stakes are high, even the meekest can be heard if someone is in their corner. That conviction is the cornerstone of his work as an immigration attorney and an advocate for those whose voices go unheard.
Juan earned his Bachelor of Law degree from Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires in 1998 and his LL.M. from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., in 2004. He began his legal career in 1994 as a law clerk in the civil courts of Argentina’s judiciary in Buenos Aires. In 1999, he joined the Organization of American States, where he worked until 2024, advising governments across the Americas on regulatory reform. He is licensed to practice law in New York and Buenos Aires.
At Tucker, Nong & Associates, Juan focuses his practice on asylum, withholding of removal, the Convention Against Torture, and removal defense before the Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals. He represents noncitizens before EOIR and USCIS with a special commitment to defending families and individuals.
Over the course of his career, Juan has worked both with governments and people. At the Organization of American States, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and regional counterparts, he helped build a network of clean-energy leaders and contributed to legal and regulatory reforms that promoted clean energy and climate resilience across Latin America and the Caribbean. His public service includes partnering with Guatemala’s Ministry of Education to build solar energy-powered schools in rural Alta Verapaz, helping Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy direct financing to small and medium-sized enterprises in villages along the Amazon River, and collaborating with the governments of the United States, Mexico, Chile, Jamaica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic to convene high-level ministerial summits on the future of energy in the Americas. Closer to home, he has devoted several years to pro bono humanitarian and benefits cases with Volunteer Legal Advocates.
As an immigration lawyer, Juan grounds his practice in three core values: rigor, clarity, and respect. He understands that each client has different needs, brings a case with its own intricacies, and is a real person with dreams and aspirations. He takes the time to unpack the process in a language that’s relatable to his clients. He treats them with the empathy, dignity, and appreciation they deserve because a case is never just an “A-number”; it is a story, an identity, and a future. His role is to help clients be heard in a system that is too often impersonal and apathetic.
Like all of his clients, Juan knows the hardships of building a life across borders. He is fluent in Spanish, English, and French, which allows him to connect with people from all walks of life in the language that feels most natural to them. Outside of legal practice, he spends much of his time biking and sailing. His wife and children are at the center of his life. A long-held dream of his is to cross the Atlantic on a small yacht, sailing the trade-wind route from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean.