About Erika
Erika Riggs is an attorney who built her practice around disability and veterans benefits after a legal education rooted in Detroit. She earned her J.D. from Wayne State University Law School in 2008 and remained connected to the university in the years that followed through clinic and teaching roles.
Her early work at Wayne State was hands-on. In 2009 she served as a research assistant and the next year worked as a student lawyer in the law school’s Asylum and Immigration Clinic. That clinic experience put her in courtrooms and client meetings, sharpening her practical skills in immigration matters and legal advocacy. She also returned to the school as a teaching assistant in 2010, helping to guide newer students through the demands of clinical work.
Riggs combined academic training with courtroom exposure through a series of clerkships. In 2009 she clerked at Lakeshore Legal Aid. The following year she accepted a law clerk position at the Detroit Immigration Court. Those roles exposed her to administrative proceedings and the mechanics of representing clients before government bodies.
Her professional practice took shape after law school. In 2010 she joined Disability Lawyers of Michigan as a lawyer. She later became a partner at Disability Law Group in 2019. Currently she practices at the Law Offices of Kelly, Riggs & Mansour. Over time her caseload shifted toward claims for Social Security disability and veterans’ benefits, work that requires repeated hearings, document preparation and interaction with administrative agencies.
Riggs holds accreditation to represent claimants before the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She maintains memberships in the State Bar of Michigan, the Macomb County Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives and the National Organization of Veterans’ Advocates. Those affiliations reflect the kinds of matters she handles and the professional networks she uses to stay current on changes in administrative law and benefits procedures. She now concentrates her practice on disability claims and veterans’ benefits representation.
