SAN DIEGO (Diya TV) — The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) held its annual convention in San Diego this past weekend. This year for the ‘Best Lawyers under 40 Award’ NAPABA announced 18 awardees and 7 out of the 18 awardees are South Asian. In addition, the President elect would be another Indian American attorney, Pankit Doshi.
Mansi Shah, partner at Merchant & Gould LLP & former SABA-NA President was one of the 7 South Asian attorneys to be recognized.
The award seeks to highlight talented individuals in the Asian Pacific American legal community who are under the age of 40 and have achieved prominence and distinction in their respective fields, according to a press release. These distinctions vary anywhere from law, academia, business, civic and charitable affairs, the judiciary, or politics.
“NAPABA’s Best Under 40 represent what is exciting and fresh about the future of NAPABA and the pipeline of Asian Pacific Americans in the legal profession,” said NAPABA President Jin Y. Hwang in a statement. “As a former Best Under 40 recipient, I recognize what an honor and prestige it is to receive this award, and these 18 men and women truly exemplify the spirit of the BU40 Award.” The complete list of awardees can be found here.
Shah, who works out of Merchant & Gould’s Silicon Valley office, where she is one of the founding partners. There, she’s developed into a respected intellectual property litigator and a dedicated advocate, mentor and leader within the APA, legal and tech communities, according to her bio on the company’s site.
“Mansi is a computer scientist and a member of the patent bar who has deep experience and success litigating intellectual property matters,” says David Bohrer, managing partner of the Merchant & Gould Silicon Valley office. “She greatly enhances our local presence in Silicon Valley, and we are proud of her legal and civic achievements.”
Mansi Shah receives her BU40 Award from NAPABA. (Image courtesy Mansi Shah)
Reacting herself, Shah said, “when you look at the outstanding attorneys who have been awarded the Best Under 40 Award and my fellow recipients, it is hard not to feel honored,” told Diya TV. “But its significance goes beyond the honor bestowed on any one individual – the award serves as a reminder that beyond traditional accomplishments of up and coming stars in their respective fields, that giving back to the Asian Pacific American community should be and is celebrated by NAPABA.”
While Shah is being recognized for her accomplishments with the BU40 Award, another Indian American in the organization is making his own dent — Pankit Doshi, NAPABA’s official president elect.
His roots with the organization run deep — Doshi previously served NAPABA as its vice president of programs and operations, as well as treasurer of the organization for two terms. He currently works as a partner in labor law in the San Francisco office of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.
In 2011, Doshi was appointed by the State Bar of California Board of Governors to serve a three-year term on the State Bar of California Council on Access and Fairness, where the focus had been to promote diversity in the legal profession and fix the pipeline to the profession through early education outreach and pre-law programs, according to NAPABA.
Doshi will not officially be sworn in as president until next November during a convention in Washington D.C., but until then, his job is to ensure that convention is the best and brightest the organization has ever had.
“As president elect, we want to have a successful convention, the largest gather of Asian Pacific Americans we’ve ever had,” Doshi told Diya TV in an interview. “We’re planning on having some of the best panels and speakers than we’ve ever had.”
Aside from his work planning the convention, Doshi will maintain his focus on fostering NAPABA’s mission statement.
“Standing up and representing the voice of the Asian American Pacific Community.”
