Jonathan Goulding is the founder and lead attorney for Goulding Law Group where he advises clients ranging from businesses and investors to families, individuals, and other attorneys.
Jonathan has held roles as an Immigration Judge, Assistant United States Attorney, and senior attorney with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He brings two decades of government experience spanning adjudicative, prosecutorial, and regulatory roles as well as civil litigation. Jonathan's experience gives him insight into how agency decisions are made, enforced, defended, and overturned. He advises clients on complex immigration, regulatory, and appellate matters, and he represents them in administrative proceedings, and in federal court litigation.
As an Immigration Judge, Jonathan presided over adversarial removal proceedings and adjudicated claims for asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture, adjustment of status, cancellation of removal, and United States citizenship, among others. He also presided over credible fear review proceedings and national security cases.
Prior to his appointment to the bench, Jonathan served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, where he held positions in both the National Security Unit and the Civil Division. In the National Security Unit, Jonathan supervised the office's criminal immigration docket and coordinated investigations involving naturalization and visa fraud, alien smuggling, identity theft, export violations, and terrorism-related offenses, among other crimes. He served as the district’s Border Security Coordinator, and he worked closely with federal investigative agencies to develop cases involving cross-border criminal conduct and national security threats.
In his civil litigation practice, Jonathan defended the United States and its agencies in litigation under the Administrative Procedure Act, Federal Tort Claims Act, Freedom of Information Act, and other statutes. He defended USCIS decisions denying immigration benefits to automotive supply chain employers and their employees, Department of State passport denials, immigration detention decisions, third-party auto negligence cases, medical malpractice cases, & FOIA denials, among others. His work required coordination with a variety of client agencies including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of State, the Postal Service, and Health and Human Services, among others.
Earlier in his career, Jonathan served for more than a decade as an attorney with the Office of Chief Counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Detroit, where he become a Senior Attorney and served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. In these roles, he litigated thousands of cases before the Immigration Courts and hundreds of appeals before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Jonathan served as team lead for the office's national security docket, developing litigation strategies in cases involving terrorism-related grounds of removability and human rights violators. He was also the office's point of contact for claims to United States citizenship as well as criminal and civil denaturalization in the federal courts. As agency counsel, Jonathan litigated and briefed challenging and precedent-setting cases. He routinely provided legal advice to enforcement officers, investigators, and agency leadership on detention authority, removability, visa eligibility, and litigation risk. As a Special Assistant United States Attorney, Jonathan investigated and prosecuted dozens of federal criminal cases, leading grand jury investigations and representing the United States at all stages of criminal prosecution including jury trial. From time to time, Jonathan also provided training to agency personnel and others on immigration, criminal, and constitutional law.
Jonathan’s experience gives him a deep understanding of immigration law, policy, and procedure. He marries sound judgment and creativity with candid advice for each of his clients.
Jonathan earned his J.D., cum laude, from Ave Maria School of Law and his B.S. in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University. He is admitted to the Massachusetts Bar. He lives on the east coast with his wife and children where he is active in his local community.
