This year, we are delighted and honored to celebrate the following awardees: Trailblazer Award: The Honorable Sergio C. Tapia II, Assistant Supervising Judge of the Criminal Division, Superior Court of California – County of Los Angeles, for serving as a pioneer in the legal community. Judicial Appreciation Award: The Honorable Neetu Badhan-Smith, Judge of the Superior Court of California – ...
This month, we are proud to feature our two outgoing Co-Presidents of SABA-SC, whose terms end this month. Janani Rana is a Certified Family Law Specialist at Minyard Morris, a family law firm in Newport Beach. She limits her practice to Orange County matters. Janani earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law ...
Pooja Patel A California native and Cal State Long Beach graduate, Pooja Patel moved to Cleveland, Ohio to attend Case Western Reserve University School of Law. In law school, Pooja served as the Secretary for the North American South Asian Law Students Association, participated in the Jonathan M. Ault Mock Trial Team, and was a senior editor for the Law ...
SABA-SC held its annual Chai Chat on January 23rd at the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown Los Angeles. Our esteemed panelists Justice Joshua P. Groban, Judge Dolly M. Gee, and Justice Halim Dhanidina spoke about their respective paths to the bench and offered advice to those interested in becoming judges. The event was moderated by Kalpana Srinivasan, Partner at ...
Congratulations to two of our longtime board members, Gopi Panchapakesan and Dhruv Sharma, for their recent professional accomplishments. Gopi Panchapakesan was just elevated to Principal at Bird Marella, effective January 1, 2020. Gopi is a Harvard Law graduate, the incoming Co-President for SABA-SC, a Fellow of NAPABA’s Leadership Advancement Program, and was selected to the Southern California Rising Stars List ...
Neil Desai grew up in the Northridge/Porter Ranch suburb of LA. After college, Neil moved around to live in different cities such as Boston, D.C., and San Francisco. He is back in LA and currently an associate with Wilson Sonsini, where he practices intellectual property litigation with an emphasis on technology-based patent litigation. Prior to law school, Neil worked as an ...
Julie Ferguson grew up in Westlake Village, CA. She relocated to Orange County in 2011 to attend college at UC Irvine and later, Chapman University School of Law in 2015. During law school, Julie participated in the Alternative Dispute Resolution clinics, working as a certified mediator at the Riverside and Orange County Superior Courts. Following graduation in 2018, Julie briefly ...
Marize Alphonso is one of SABA-SC’s Community Engagement Directors. Marize is an entertainment transactional attorney at the law firm of Reder & Feig, LLP. She currently provides production legal services for scripted television shows, and has served as legal counsel for multiple independent movies. Marize graduated from UC Berkeley, with a double major in Rhetoric and English, and from UCLA ...
SABA-SC held its annual Mentorship Reception on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at the gorgeous rooftop space provided by Nixon Peabody LLP. Over 90 attendees, including judges, attorneys, legal professionals, and law students, enjoyed delicious food and drink while networking and mingling. The event served as a kick-off to the SABA-SC Mentorship Program, which achieved record levels of participation this year. ...
Labdhi Sheth is SABA-SC’s Community Engagement Director and Co-Chair of the Mentorship Program. She is currently a judicial clerk for the United States District Court, Central District of California. Labdhi earned her Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015 and her J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles in 2019. In law school, Labdhi ...