If confirmed, she would be first South Asian to serve the post.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: President Barack Obama has added yet another name to the ever-growing list of Indian Americans appointed to lofty judicial posts.
Obama has nominated Indira Talwani to be a judge for the US District Court in Boston, Massachusetts. If confirmed, she would be the first ever South Asian to fill the post. The appointment makes Talwani – the fourth Indian American Obama has nominated to a high-ranking judicial post in recent months, following Sri Srinivasan, Vince Chhabria and Manish Shah, who was just nominated to the US District Court of Illinois.
Talwani is currently a partner at the law firm of Segal Roitman LLP in Boston. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982 from Harvard College, where she graduated cum laude. She then earned her Juris Doctorate (JD) from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1988; again, she graduated with honors, this time with the Order of the Coif, a prestigious honor society of law school graduates at UC Berkeley. She served as clerk for Judge Stanley Weigel in northern California, was an associate at the San Francisco law firm of Altshuler Berzon LLP, and began working at Segal Roitman LLP in 1999.
Talwani – whose legal expertise lies in the fields of individual and union law – has been nominated for the seat vacated by Judge Mark L. Wolf, who has moved on to a senior position. Wolf held the position from 2006-2012.
In a statement about Talwani’s nomination, President Obama said that he is “grateful for [her] willingness to serve and confident that [she] will apply the law with the utmost impartiality and integrity.” Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) also voiced her approval of Obama’s selection.
Talwani’s appointment, as well as those of Chhabria and Shah, are awaiting Congressional approval.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com