SABA-NC Board of Directors

2024-2025


Siraj Husain,
President

Siraj Husain is a seasoned patent attorney and intellectual property lawyer. Having spent nearly 15 years practicing law in both law firm and corporate environments, his extensive experience allows him to serve as a trusted advisor who provides strategic and practical advice tailored to the unique needs of each client.

Siraj is committed to SABA-NC and first began serving on its board in 2013 as Co-Chair of the Pro Bono Committee. He earned his J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles and his undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Riverside.


Komey Vishakan, President-Elect

Komey Vishakan is a Senior Attorney at Lozano Smith, LLP where she advises public agencies including school districts. Komey is the recent past General Counsel of Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD). In that role, Komey focused on Title IX compliance and sexual violence prevention work. She successfully led PAUSD through a federal investigation, conducted by the Office for Civil Rights into sexual violence on campus.

Before settling down in the San Francisco Bay Area, Komey was a prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in the UK, and for the state and federal prosecuting bodies in Australia. Also as National Litigation Manager for the Australian Crime Commission, she was part of multiple serious organized crime investigations and related litigation.


Roshni Advani,
Vice President

Roshni Advani is an experienced in-house attorney with a wealth of diverse experience. Currently serving as Corporate Counsel at Workday, she specializes in strategy and partnerships.

Prior to her tenure at Workday, Roshni worked at Penumbra, Inc., a medical device company. Roshni started her legal career began at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, Inc. after earning her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law. Roshni also holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz and is a former president of the North American South Asian Law Students Association (NASALSA).

A Bay Area native, Roshni enjoys spending time with her dog, watching basketball, and being with family.


Sonakshi Jha, Treasurer

Sonakshi Jha is Of Counsel at DLA Piper LLP and focuses her practice in finance. She represents financial institutions in venture debt lending and in leveraged finance transactions. Her experience includes representing clients in secured and unsecured financings in domestic and international transactions involving acquisition finance, asset based loans, cash flow loans, syndicated loans and multi-currency loans. 

Sonakshi grew up in New Delhi, India and prior to working as an attorney in the United States, Sonakshi worked as an attorney in India, where she represented clients in domestic and cross border M&A transactions.


Sonali Shah,
Secretary

Sonali Shah is IP Counsel at ŌURA, where she helps manage all things IP (including patent prosecution, IP enforcement, brand enforcement, and more). Leveraging a background in biochemical engineering and previous experience in artificial intelligence, software, and hardware, Sonali approaches this work with a unique perspective.

While attending Santa Clara University School of Law, Sonali earned the High Tech Law Certificate with a focus on Intellectual Property. She received her bachelor of science degree in biochemical engineering from the University of Georgia.


Priyah Kaul,
Communications
Co-Chair

Priyah Kaul is an attorney at Rosen Bien Galvan and Grunfeld LLP, where she works on complex civil litigation and prelitigation matters, including class and collective actions. Her practice includes representing workers in wage and hour and employment discrimination cases, working to improve conditions of confinement for incarcerated people across the state, and other civil rights issues. Priyah also has experience representing clients in a variety of commercial disputes.

Prior to joining her law firm, Priyah served as a law clerk to the Hon. Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Priyah earned her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and her B.A. in Business Economics and Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.


Gauri Phadnis,
Communications
Co-Chair

Gauri Phadnis is an Attorney-Advisor for the United States Coast Guard, where she advises on national security law, information law, data privacy, and constitutional law. Prior to working for the Coast Guard, Gauri served on active duty as an Air Force JAG attorney. She continues to serve as a JAG part-time in the Air Force Reserve.

Gauri earned her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and her B.S. from the University of Texas at Austin. She is also currently earning an LL.M. in Space, Cyber, and National Security Law from the University of Nebraska College of Law.


Gurneet Singh,
In-House Programming Co-Chair

Gurneet Singh is an intellectual property (IP) litigator and patent attorney with Jones Day. With 10+ years of IP experience, he focuses his practice on patent litigation in federal courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC), and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). He has also managed, supervised, and handled development of global patent portfolios, analyzed patent portfolios for due diligence purposes, and drafted several freedom-to-operate and patentability opinions. Gurneet attended law school in the evenings at Rutgers University, which upon graduation recognized him as an outstanding graduate. Earlier, he studied engineering at University of California, Los Angeles.


Aditi Gupta,
In-House Programming Co-Chair

Aditi is a tech and privacy attorney with legal and start-up experience in the US and India, and currently serves as Commercial Counsel at Postman, an API platform for building and using APIs, based in San Francisco. Aditi’s work focuses on privacy, technology, intellectual property and commercial transactions.

Aditi received her LL.M. from University of California Berkeley School of Law, and earned her LL.B. (JD equivalent) from University of Delhi. Aditi’s professional affiliations include TechGC, an organization for general counsels of tech companies, Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), and Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Silicon Valley (APABA-SV).

Aditi has been in the Bay Area since 2016. In her free time, Aditi enjoys dance classes, yoga, reading books on psychology and fiction. Reach out to her for charting a path as an LLM student and succeeding in in-house roles.


Gurleen K. Rana,
Pro Bono
Co-Chair

Gurleen Kaur Rana is an attorney at Sideman & Bancroft, LLP where she supports the Brand Protection & Innovations and Intellectual Property Litigation & Appeals group. She has extensive experience in commercial litigation, brand protection and anti-counterfeit enforcement, and corporate transactions. Gurleen earned her J.D. from Santa Clara University, School of Law in 2018 and her B.A. in Political Science and Law, Societies, and Justice, from the University of Washington, Seattle. While in law school, she received a certificate in High Tech Law with a Specialization in Intellectual Property, and served as the Secretary for South Asian Law Student Association.


Neelesh Moorthy,
Pro Bono
Co-Chair

Neelesh (“Neel”) Moorthy is a third-year antitrust associate in the San Francisco office of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP, a national law firm specializing in antitrust, intellectual property, and complex commercial litigation. He focuses on antitrust litigation and merger reviews and clearance and is also active on pro bono matters, including Section 1983 cases.

Neel earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law school and his B.S. in Economics from Duke University.


Prince Singh,
Events
Co-Chair

Prince Singh is an intellectual property attorney at Reed Smith LLP where he handles complex patent litigation cases for mechanical and pharmaceutical patents. He has a background in healthcare and is passionate about health equity and exploring the intersection of law, technology and healthcare.

At Reed Smith Prince is actively involved in the pro bono committee and has spent the last year working on Humanitarian Parole cases for Afghan Refugees. Prince earned his B.A. with honors from UC Santa Barbara, and a JD/MPH from UC Davis School of Law and Harvard University. Prince is a Bay Area native, a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur, and an advocate for animal rights.   


Jas Sangra,
Events
Co-Chair

Jas Sanga is co-chair of the Events committee.


Yaamini Rao,
Social Justice
Chair

Yaamini L. Rao, Ed.M, Esq. is a Deputy Public Defender for the County of Santa Clara. Yaamini is currently a Senior Attorney in the Juvenile Unit representing youth accused of crimes. Yaamini is passionate about reforming the juvenile and criminal legal systems as well as improving the practice of criminal law for women of color. She is the Co-Chair of the Data Committee through the ABA Women in Criminal Justice Task Force Advisory Board, a member of the DEIB committee at SCC PDO, a Co-Founder of the Women of Color Defender Network, and on board of the Asian American Criminal Trial Lawyers Association. Yaamini is extremely proud of her South Asian heritage and looks forward to engaging the South Asian legal community on issues of Social Justice. Yaamini holds her B.A. in English and Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley, her Masters of Education in Adolescent Risk and Prevention from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her Juris Doctorate from the Georgetown University Law Center.


Neeta Sahadev, Membership Chair

Neeta Sahadev,
Memberships
Chair

Neeta Sahadev is an M&A partner at White & Case, where she represents domestic and international clients in a wide range of corporate transactions, including private, cross-border and global mergers and acquisitions, and private investments in a broad range of industries, with a particular focus on the technology industry. Prior to joining White & Case, Neeta practiced as an M&A attorney in the Toronto office of a global law firm.

Neeta earned her Juris Doctorate from Osgoode Hall Law School, and her Bachelor of Arts (Double Major in Economics and Criminology) from the University of Toronto.


Thaila Sundaresan, Endorsements
Co-Chair

Thaila Sundaresan is a Communications and Appellate Litigation partner at Davis Wright Tremaine.  She leverages her years of practice in government and the private sector to solve problems for broadband, communications, and tech clients who find themselves involved in matters before state and federal regulators and the courts.  Prior to joining DWT, Thaila was in the General Counsel’s Office at the Federal Communications Commission for 6 years, where she personally briefed and argued numerous cases in the federal courts of appeals.  In addition to serving as a co-chair of the SABA-NC Endorsements Committee, Thaila is also on the board of LEAP (Legal Education Access Pipeline) and is the co-chair of the Northern CA chapter of the Federal Communications Bar Association.  She received her B.A. with honors from Stanford University, and her J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, magna cum laude.


Ruby Kazi, Pro Bono Committee Co-Chair

Ruby Kazi,
Endorsements
Co-Chair

Ruby Kazi is Of Counsel for Benesch’s Litigation Practice Group.  She is an experienced trial and appellate attorney who focuses her practice on collaborating with her clients who are industry leaders facing threats to their businesses.  She has experience first chairing trials in both state and federal court, preparing for and presenting oral arguments.

Ruby earned her J.D. from Drake Law School and her B.S. from Northwestern University.  She has been named among the “40 Under 40” and Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, received the Tribute to Women and Industry (TWIN) Award from the YWCA of Silicon Valley and the Judicial Advocacy Award from SABA-NC, and is a past recipient of NAPABA’s Pro Bono Award. She is a long-time board member for the Asian Law Alliance, a member of the Ingram Inn of Court, and recently served on the Board of Counselors for Drake Law School.


Alvir Sadwani,
Mentorship Chair

Alvir Sadhwani is a proud Deputy Public Defender for the County of Solano! He is energized by the daily fight for his client’s rights and freedoms. Alvir previously was a Navy JAG Corps Officer – serving as general counsel to ships deployed at sea, aircraft squadrons, and to both domestic and international U.S. military bases. During his tenure in the Navy, Alvir litigated cases ranging from misdemeanors to serious felonies, and also served as a human rights law instructor across Asia and Africa.

Alvir graduated from American University in 2010 earning a JD and a MA in International Affairs.


Darpan R. Singh,
Gala Co-Chair

Darpan R. Singh is an associate at Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider, a boutique firm in downtown SF specializing in Antitrust and IP litigation. She is born and raised in the bay area..

Darpan graduated with her J.D. from UC College of the Law SF (formerly known as UC Hastings) in 2022 and has an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Chapman University.


Upinderpreet Gill,
Gala Co-Chair

Upinderpreet Gill is a financial markets associate at Jones Day. Silicon Valley. Upinderpreet earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. in Legal Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.