The National Law Journal, a leading legal newspaper in the US, has included 10 Indian American attorneys on its "Minority 40 Under 40" list, a special report recognizing minority lawyers under the age of 40 who have demonstrated national influence in their practice areas. One well-known name on the list is Vanita Gupta, 36, of the American Civil Liberties Union, who when she was a Soros Justice fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund uncovered inconsistencies in a case involving the arrests of 38 African Americans in Tulia, Texas, on drug charges. Gupta coordinated a pro bono effort along with major law firms that two years later resulted in Texas Governor Rick Perry pardoning 36 of those convicted in the case. Gupta at the ACLU fought against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detainment of families, including children, in prison-like conditions for civil immigration violations. ICE in 2007 settled a complaint, ending the pilot program creating family detention centers. Another high-profile Indian American attorney on the list is Kannon Shanmugam, 38, a partner at Williams & Connolly since 2008 and a former assistant to the U.S. solicitor general. The Law Journal said Shanmugam's appearance before the Supreme Court arguing pro bono for a Louisiana death row inmate in Smith v. Cain Nov. 8 was his "third argument there in three years." Sarang Vijay Damle, 34, supervises the appellate staff's internship program in the civil division at the U.S. Department of Justice. He rated mention in the Law Journal partly because he has argued 20 appellate cases in U.S. courts and is handling First Amendment suits involving state and local governments' attempts to regulate protest activity near funerals. Amit Mehta, a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder, has been involved in many big cases, including helping former IMF president Dominique Strauss-Kahn successfully get dismissed criminal assault charges in New York state court. Mehta, 39, is also a board member of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, which seeks to reverse and prevent wrongful convictions in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Indranil "Indy" Mukerji, 37, a partner at Fish & Richardson in Washington, D.C., represented about a third of the 150 defendants sued by Parallel Networks LLC in a recent patent infringement case in Texas. He was co-lead lawyer for Google and Amazon.com and represented 46 other defendants in the case. The defendants won by summary judgment in August. Co-chairman of Mayer Brown's consumer litigation and class action practice, Archis Parasharami, the Law Journal pointed out, "laid the early groundwork for the business community's major victory last term in the U.S. Supreme Court - defeating a challenge to an arbitration agreement's class action waiver provision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion." Nahla Rajan, 36, who joined Los Angeles, Calif.-based Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp as a litigation associate in 2006, has represented the heirs of actor Burt Lancaster and the grandchildren of Walt Disney in trust and estates disputes. A former deputy public defender and federal prosecutor, she plans to start a Muslim bar association in Los Angeles next year, the Law Journal said.
Shima Roy, 37, a partner at Baker & McKenzie in Chicago, "has made a name for herself" as a "go-to partner to handle complex international litigation," the Law Journal said. She is developing an India litigation practice and currently represents a girl, 16, who allegedly confessed to murder charges after being held in a Chicago police interrogation room for about 60 hours. Manisha Sheth, 37, a former federal prosecutor and a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, is on the team representing the Federal Housing Finance Agency in lawsuits against 18 of the largest financial institutions who sold sub-par mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. She is also working on cases against Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Citigroup.
Amandeep Sidhu, 33, of McDermott Will & Emery, "has built a reputation as a strong litigator with a solid commitment to pro bono cases," the Law Journal said. A founding member of The Sikh Coalition, he has fought a pro bono battle on behalf of three Sikh men who wanted to serve in the U.S. Army.
He was able to successfully show that the men were able to meet uniform requirements by using Army-issued cloth for the turbans and that even with a beard, the men could not only use a gas mask effectively, but surpass their clean-shaven comrades in field tests. Eventually the men were allowed to join the service, but Sidhu said that he would settle for nothing less than a policy change.