
Swara Saraiya
Counsel
Areas of Focus
- Complex Commercial Litigation
- Investment Funds Litigation
- Represents public and private companies, financial institutions, investment funds and individuals in high-stakes complex commercial litigation.
Swara is a results-driven trial and appellate litigator who has practiced before federal and state courts across the nation, as well as in domestic and international arbitral forums.
Swara represents clients in a wide variety of complex litigation, including contract, antitrust, shareholder derivative, securities, trade secrets and intellectual property matters.
Swara also maintains an active pro bono practice. She has represented organizations as amici in landmark cases, and litigated civil rights and immigration matters.
Prior to joining Akin, Swara was a litigation associate at another leading global firm and a boutique litigation firm in New York City. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Wendy Beetlestone, Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District in Pennsylvania.
Swara received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
- Represented a pharmaceutical company in an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration relating to a dispute regarding a collaboration agreement.
- Represented a European biotech company in a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration relating to a dispute under a financing agreement.
- Represented a Japanese medical device manufacturer in a contract dispute against a multinational company.
- Represented an investment fund in a breach-of-contract and fraud suit involving a portfolio of life insurance policies in the Southern District of New York.
- Represented a major utility company in connection with complex federal, state and bankruptcy proceedings relating to California wildfires.
- Represented a global pharmaceutical company in antitrust litigation relating to a patent settlement for a blockbuster antihypertensive medication.
- Represented shareholders in a securities fraud dispute and a publicly traded pharmaceutical company in successful appeal to the First Circuit, and in subsequent remand proceedings before the District of Massachusetts.
EducationJ.D., Columbia Law School, 2019
B.A., University of Chicago, with honors, 2016
J.D., Columbia Law School, 2019
B.A., University of Chicago, with honors, 2016
ClerkshipsU.S.D.C., Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S.D.C., Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Bar AdmissionsNew York
New York
- Diversity Law Journal, Women Worth Watching in Leadership, 2024.
- New York State Bar Association, The Honorable Judith Kaye Commercial & Federal Litigation Scholarship, 2024.
- Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Pathfinder, 2024.
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation.