Indian American law expert currently oversees all legal matters arising before US General Services Administration
President Joe Biden has appointed Indian American law expert Nitin Shah as a member of an independent federal agency charged with recommending improvements to administrative process and procedure.
Shah’s appointment to the ten-member Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) was announced by the White House Thursday with two others: Leslie B. Kiernan and Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo.
ACUS initiatives promote efficiency, participation, and fairness in the promulgation of federal regulations and in the administration of federal programs, it said.
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Shah currently serves as General Counsel of the US General Services Administration where he oversees all legal matters arising before the agency, according to his official bio.
He is GSA’s Designated Agency Ethics Official and Chief FOIA Officer, and manages a nationwide office of approximately 170 attorneys and staff. During his career, Shah has focused on administrative law issues from various perspectives.
He previously served in the Department of Justice in several capacities, including as Chief of Staff of the Civil Division and as an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel.
He also served as senior counsel at a nonprofit organization focused on administrative litigation and was a legal director for the Biden-Harris Transition Team.
Shah clerked for Judith W. Rogers of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and for T.S. Ellis III of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Born and raised in San Diego, he is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law.
Read: Indian-American Lawyer Nitin Shah To Be Appointed To Council of The Administrative Conference of US (October 1, 2021)
As the General Counsel at the Department of Commerce, Kiernan serves as the Chief Legal Officer of the Department and as legal advisor to the Secretary, Secretarial Officers, and the Department’s operating units.
Badejo currently serves as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office.