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  • Monday, December 01, 2014 4:21 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)

     

    We are deeply saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague, Ajay Ojha. Ajay was in Escuintla, Guatemala on November 12, 2014 while on a volunteer service mission helping build a secondary school there. He was 38.
    He worked as a consultant for the federal government in Washington, DC, primarily assisting the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security with Program Management and Strategic Communications. He was very active in his community, serving on several boards including the Upakar Foundation, the South Asian Bar Association of North America Foundation, and the DC Commission on Asian and Pacific Island Community Development.

    In lieu of flowers and to celebrate his life, an educational scholarship fund has been set up in his name through the Upakar Foundation and donations may be made at – http://www.upakarfoundation.org/named-scholarships/ajay-ojha-memorial

     

    A memorial service in Washington, DC, is tentatively set for Wednesday evening, December 10th. Please register here if you will be attending: 

  • Tuesday, November 18, 2014 11:04 AM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)
    The SABA-DC Fall Newsletter is here! We've had some wonderfully exciting times and have many stories to share. Please follow this link link to catch up on happenings in the SABA-DC community over the past few months. 
  • Sunday, October 26, 2014 5:15 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)

     

    SABA-DC believes Karl Racine is immensely qualified for the D.C Attorney General position because of the depth and range of his legal, management and leadership experience. Mr. Racine’s legal experience as a public defender in the District of Columbia, litigator of white-collar and commercial cases at Cacheris & Treanor, associate general counsel in the Clinton White House, and the first African-American managing partner of Venable LLP will serve him well.  His over ten years of management and leadership experience as managing partner of Venableundefineda top 100 firmundefinedhas particularly equipped him well to run the D.C. Office of Attorney General, which will require overseeing 300 attorneys and managing a $100 million budget.  SABA-DC is also impressed by Mr. Racine’s commitment to pro bono work exhibited through the over 1,000 hours he has spent defending victims in death penalty cases, and by his continued commitment to fostering greater diversity in the legal profession. 

  • Wednesday, October 15, 2014 4:12 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)

    The South Asian Bar Association of Washington, D.C. (SABA-DC) congratulates its member Vanita Gupta on her appointment as the acting head of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  Vanita will become Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.  She is the first South Asian American appointed to head the division.

     

    “Vanita is an excellent choice for this position given her significant litigation and policy experience across a range of civil right issues.  We are extremely excited about her appointment,” said Shuchi Batra, President of SABA-DC.  Immediately prior to her appointment, Vanita was the Deputy Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Director of the ACLU’s Center for Justice, which houses the organization’s criminal justice reform, prisoners’ rights, and capital punishment work.  Previously, Vanita served as a staff attorney with the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program, focusing on systemic criminal justice reform, immigration detention, and education litigation.  She won a landmark settlement on behalf of immigrant children detained in a privately-run prison in Texas that led to the end of “family detention” at the facility.  

     

    Vanita began her career with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund where she successfully led the effort to overturn the wrongful drug convictions of 38 individuals in Tulia, Texas, and served on the legal team that won freedom for renowned prison journalist Wilbert Rideau in his fourth retrial after he had already spent 44 years in prison.  She also successfully won significant sentence reductions for several men subject to harsh New York Rockefeller drug penalties.

     

    In 2011, the National Law Journal recognized her as a Top 40 Minority Lawyer Under 40.  Vanita is a magna cum laude graduate of Yale University and received her law degree from New York University School of Law.

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    SABA-DC is a voluntary bar association dedicated to promoting the needs, concerns, and interests of the South Asian American legal community in the Washington, D.C. area. The organization reaches approximately 1,000 attorneys and jurists of South Asian origin in the Washington, D.C. area. 

  • Wednesday, August 20, 2014 10:54 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)
    The SABA-DC Summer Newsletter is here!  We've had some wonderfully exciting times and have many stories to share.  Please follow this link to catch up on happenings in the SABA-DC community over the past few months. 
    SABA-DC's Spring 2014 newsletter highlights happenings in the Washington D.C.'s South Asian legal community.  We hope you enjoy reading it and welcome your feedback. 
  • Thursday, July 31, 2014 10:45 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)

    For Immediate Release, August 1, 2014

     

     

    SABA NORTH AMERICA and saba-DC APPLAUD THE NOMINATION

    OF AMIT PRIYAVADAN MEHTA FOR THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

     

     

    The South Asian Bar Association of North America (SABA North America) and the South Asian Bar Association of Washington, D.C. (SABA-DC) applaud President Obama’s nomination of Amit Priyavadan Mehta to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

     

    “Amit is an established and respected leader in the South Asian legal community. We are extremely excited that another deserving South Asian has been nominated to the judiciary,” pronounced Mansi Shah, President of SABA North America. Shuchi Batra, President of SABA-DC, added, “SABA-DC is very proud that President Obama has chosen to nominate our member Amit P. Mehta to the distinguished bench of the District Court for the District of Columbia.”

     

    SABA North America and SABA-DC both proudly endorsed Mr. Mehta for this position. 

     

    Amit Mehta has been a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP since 2010, where he represents clients in civil and criminal matters before state and federal courts. He rejoined the firm as counsel in 2007, after serving as a staff attorney for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia from 2002 to 2007. Mehta worked as an associate at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP from 1999 to 2002, as a law clerk for Judge Susan P. Graber of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1998 to 1999, and as an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP from 1997 to 1998. He received his J.D. in 1997 from the University of Virginia School of Law and his B.A. in 1993 from Georgetown University.

     

    Mr. Mehta’s experience is marked by high profile successes in difficult cases, including the civil and criminal defense of Dominique Strauss-Kahn against allegations of sexual abuse and the defense of the former president of the Salt Lake City Olympic bid committee against charges of fraud and racketeering. His years at the D.C. Public Defender Service gave him real-world insight into the daily challenges and disparities in economics, education, and opportunity experienced by disadvantaged communities, particularly for young minorities.

     

    Mr. Mehta has also made community service a priority. He has served as a Director of Facilitating Leadership in Youth, a non-profit organization dedicated to after-school activities and mentoring for at-risk youth. He also served as the Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. Mr. Mehta’s dedication to seek justice through the vindication of the factually innocent demonstrates the commitment he would bring to the bench once confirmed.

     

     

     

     

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    SABA North America (formerly NASABA/North American South Asian Bar Association) is a voluntary bar organization and serves as an umbrella organization to 25 chapters in the United States and Canada. SABA North America is a recognized forum for professional growth and advancement for South Asian attorneys in North America and seeks to protect the rights and liberties of the South Asian community across the continent. Learn more at www.sabanorthamerica.com.

     

    SABA-DC is a voluntary bar association dedicated to promoting the needs, concerns, and interests of the South Asian American legal community in the Washington, D.C. area. The organization reaches approximately 1,000 attorneys and jurists of South Asian origin in the Washington, D.C. area. 

     

     

     

    Neil C. Maskeri

    Vice President of Public Relations

    South Asian Bar Association of North America

    215-255-9180

    publicrelations@sabanorthamerica.com              

    www.sabanorthamerica.com

  • Tuesday, June 10, 2014 8:23 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)
    After reviewing a number of applications and interviewing the finalists, SABA-DC is happy to announce its Public Interest Fellows for 2014!  Due to the number and quality of the applications received this year, SABA-DC has awarded the fellowship to five highly-qualified law school students working in the public interest sector in the Washington, D.C. area this summer.  Get to know them here: http://bit.ly/1u3eY4l

    Thanks to the support of its law firm and corporate sponsors and individual donors, SABA-DC is able to provide this financial assistance to law school students through its Public Interest Fellowship.  Save the date for this year's Public Interest Fellowship Gala on Saturday, December 6, 2014!

  • Sunday, May 18, 2014 11:29 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)
    SABA-DC's Spring 2014 newsletter highlights happenings in the Washington D.C.'s South Asian legal community.  We hope you enjoy reading it and welcome your feedback. 
  • Monday, May 05, 2014 4:50 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)

    CHICAGO (APRIL 30, 2014) – The South Asian Bar Association of (“SABA”) North America and the Indian-American Bar Association of Chicago (IABA) congratulate Manish Shah on his confirmation to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, where he previously served as a law clerk. The Senate approved him unanimously. “Manish Shah’s unanimous confirmation demonstrates, yet again, what an extraordinary pool of talent we have in our community,” stated Nadeem Bezar, President of SABA North America.

    “Mr. Shah’s confirmation as the first South Asian American federal judge in Illinois represents another significant milestone for our community. We look forward to his service on the bench and applaud the president and the US Senate for nominating and confirming him,” said Tejas Shah, President of IABA. Judge Shah is the first Article III South Asian judge in Illinois.

    Manish Shah currently serves as the Chief of the Criminal Division at the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, where he has worked since 2001. His decision to spend almost his entire career in the U.S. Attorney’s office demonstrates a dedication to public service. Additionally, he has given back to new attorneys by teaching at the National Advocacy Center and instructing at a legal aid workshop at the University of Chicago.

    Judge Shah received his J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998, and his B.A. with honors, and with distinction, from Stanford University in 1994. He began his legal career as a Litigation Associate at Heller Ehrman White & McAuliffe in San Francisco, CA where he represented clients in commercial and antitrust litigation, and subsequently clerked for Hon. James B. Zagel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

    Neil C. Maskeri

    Vice President of Public Relations

    South Asian Bar Association of North America

    ________

    SABA North America (formerly NASABA/North American South Asian Bar Association) is a voluntary bar organization and serves as an umbrella organization to 26 chapters in the United States and Canada. SABA North America is a recognized forum for professional growth and advancement for South Asian attorneys in North America and seeks to protect the rights and liberties of the South Asian community across the continent. Learn more at www.sabanorthamerica.com


  • Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:19 PM | SABA DC Communications (Administrator)
    SABA-DC has endorsed the following candidates for the 2014 DC Bar Elections:

    DC Bar President:  Stephen Glover
    DC Bar Treasurer:  Sarah Shyr
    DC Bar Board of Governors:  Keiko K. Takagi, Sergio F. Oehninger
    DC Bar ABA delegate:  Lucy Thomson

    The voting period runs from April 29 to May 23, 2014.  SABA-DC members are encouraged to vote. To vote online, please visit: 
    https://www.dcbar.org/vote/?emc=lm&m=167357&l=3&v=57462831


SABA-DC 

Our goal is to address the needs and concerns of the South Asian American legal community in Washington, D.C. while providing our members with the knowledge and support necessary to reach their personal and professional goals.


You can find us here:

South Asian Bar Association of Washington, D.C.

P.O. Box 65349
Washington, D.C. 20035


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