NEW YORK, NY -  Preeta D. Bansal, was named as one of the fifty most influential minority lawyers in America by the National Law Journal on May 26.  Bansal is a member of the National Advisory Council of the North American South Asian Bar Association (NASABA).

The National Law Journal stated, “There’s no question that the attorneys listed . . . truly represent important movers and shakers. They direct the legal affairs of mighty corporations; they invent new practice areas; they move the gears of the nation’s political machinery.” Only 5.4% of partners at U.S. law firms are members of minority groups and only 1.7% are women of color, according to the legal placement organization NALP.

Bansal heads the appellate litigation practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York. She recently won one of the largest constitutional takings cases at the United States Appeals Court for the Second Circuit and currently serves as a policy adviser to Senator Barack Obama.

In addition, she is a Commissioner and Past Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan independent agency of the U.S. government that advises the President, Secretary of State and Congress on promoting religious freedom and human rights abroad.  Bansal was the Solicitor General of the State of New York during then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s first term, a special counsel in the Clinton White House, and a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and to then-Chief Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Bansal graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was Supervising Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and from Harvard-Radcliffe College. She serves on the boards of numerous public service and governmental organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center, New York City
Campaign Finance Board, and the New York City Bar Justice Fund.

NASABA President Alamdar Hamdani stated, “We at NASABA are proud of Preeta Bansal and all of her accomplishments. We commend the National Law Journal for recognizing Ms. Bansal’s legal talent and accomplishments and the example she sets for the South Asian bar.”

Washington D.C. lawyers Prakash Mehta, Esq., partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and Sri Srinivasan, Esq., partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, also made the National Law Journal list.