The National Law Journal Names Pratik Shah a Litigation Trailblazer

(Washington, D.C.) – Pratik Shah, co-head of Akin Gump’s Supreme Court and appellate practice, has been named to The National Law Journal’s sixth annual Litigation Trailblazers—a list of those litigators who are seen as “agents of change.”

Mr. Shah’s “pioneer spirit” took off, the publication says, after serving as a law clerk to Judge William Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and then for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer when he became “enamored with the appellate practice.” He noted that the most formative event in his appellate career “was joining the Office of the Solicitor General in 2008, because that office is home to many of the best appellate advocates in the country.”

Soon after that, Mr. Shah started blazing trails that, according to NLJ, included U.S. v. Windsor, the successful challenge of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). “It was a unique experience to be at the cutting edge of the debate on marriage equality,” he said. “It was also the rare situation where the federal government challenged the constitutionality of a federal law, because President Obama determined that DOMA violated equal protection.” At Akin Gump, the publication notes that Mr. Shah has also recently successfully represented the Gila River Indian Community and Navajo Nation in defending the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act. (Click here to read more.)

Mr. Shah said he hopes in the future to continue doing precedent-setting appellate and Supreme Court work to promote civil rights, gay rights and immigration protections. As he noted, “We want to continue taking a role in the highest-stakes cases for all our clients.”

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

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