An Interview with Pratik Shah: Partner and Co-Chair of Akin Gump’s Supreme Court and Appellate Practice
Moderated by Priyanka Shah, Editor-in-Chief, YJPerspectives
Pratik Shah is a partner and co-chair of the Supreme Court and Appellate practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Washington DC. With over 15 years of experience, including a clerkship with Justice Stephen G. Breyer and a stint at US Department of Justice, he has argued 15 cases before the US Supreme Court, winning all but 3! Pratik has been described by leading publications as “the complete package: an extremely gifted writer and an extremely effective oral advocate” who has successfully “practiced before the highest court in the land on some of the most groundbreaking cases of the 21st century.” He has earned a number of awards and recognitions: being named a “Legal Lion” for his most recent Supreme Court victory this year by Law 360, placed onto the “Appellate Hot List” by National Law Journal, and recognized nationally as one of the top “40 attorneys under 40” by Legal Times, to name a few. Pratik graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and then went on to earn his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Hi, Pratik! Thank you for your time today. On behalf of Young Jain Professionals (YJP), I would like to congratulate you for your selection as the Q3–2019 YJP Professional Spotlight Award Winner! What made you choose to go into law, a fairly non-traditional field for South Asians until relatively recently?
I studied chemical engineering in undergrad, yet I always knew I didn’t want to pursue that as a career. My favorite extracurricular activity in high school was mock trial, so that, along with John Grisham novels embarrassingly enough, sparked my interest in the law. Beyond that, I had some notion that lawyers, such as Gandhi to name just one, were well positioned to help bring about change. Admittedly, I really didn’t have a very good idea of what real lawyers actually did on a day-to-day basis. That’s in part because there just were not a whole lot of South Asian lawyers when I started law school back in the late 90s, and none that I knew personally. Thankfully, I ended up loving law school and developed a particular interest in constitutional law and the Supreme Court. The number of South Asian lawyers has skyrocketed in recent years, providing a robust professional and social network. It’s been particularly fulfilling to see my little niche of Supreme Court and appellate advocacy now feature several top South Asian lawyers.
You have built an incredible career in law. What factors have led to your success?
Being blessed with a strongly supportive family and having been afforded special opportunities early on in my education and career. As far as family, my parents and older brother always encouraged me to pursue my dreams, without any pressure to pursue a more traditional field such as medicine or engineering, even if this happened to take me to schools and jobs far away from home. As far as opportunities, I consider two experiences to be the most formative for my legal career. First, clerking, a job in which recent law grads assist a judge in researching and drafting decisions, at the Supreme Court for Justice Breyer allowed me to be a part of the inner workings of the highest court in the land and appreciate how law is made in the most challenging and pressing cases. Second, serving in the Solicitor General’s office, the part of the Justice Department that represents the United States before the Supreme Court, offered me the chance to learn from our country’s best Supreme Court lawyers and argue cases of my own before the U.S. Supreme Court as a young lawyer.
What is it like to argue in the U.S. Supreme Court?
First and foremost, it’s a great honor and privilege. But a close second is that it’s both pretty nerve-wrecking — especially leading up to the moment you start — and exhilarating — as soon as you’re done. Supreme Court oral argument is very different than it used to be. Instead of the long uninterrupted monologues of the past, today’s arguments are rapid-fire with the Justices often bombarding the advocate with questions from the very start. So you have to be ready to answer directly and quickly, all while trying to pivot to key points you want to make. One thing that I find helps with being comfortable at the podium is the close proximity between the advocate and the Justices in the Supreme Court’s courtroom: you can speak to the Justices eye-to-eye, so it feels more like a one-on-one conversation, though sometimes an unpleasant one!
Have your Jain and / or personal values influenced your professional decisions and actions? If so, how?
Service to others in need (seva), an important Jain and universal value, is something that I have strived to incorporate into my legal practice over the years. I have had the privilege of being part of Supreme Court battles to help secure fundamental and equal rights for various groups of people.
Early on in my career, I was part of a pro bono legal team, offering services at no cost, that successfully represented a group of Guantanamo detainees that had been held for years without evidence of wrongdoing or any sort of process. The Supreme Court ruled in our favor to afford them basic habeas corpus rights. While I served in the Solicitor General’s office at the Justice Department, I drafted the briefs with now-Judge Sri Srinivasan that led the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, opening the door to marriage equality regardless of sexual orientation. I’ve also represented Karen Korematsu, daughter of Fred Korematsu from the infamous Japanese-American incarceration cases during World War II, as well as civil rights organizations challenging the Trump Administration’s Muslim travel ban and census citizenship questions targeting immigrant communities, again in a pro bono capacity. And most recently, I’ve represented Native American tribes to help preserve the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a major civil rights law designed to protect Native American families and their children.
These cases have allowed me to put into action deeply held values of our community that have also played a critical part in shaping my legal career. I hope that my professional pursuits continue to have a broader societal impact beyond winning cases for corporate and other powerful clients.
What is the best piece of advice you have received that you would like to pass onto young Jain professionals?
I would encourage younger folks to take advantage of our strong professional affinity associations in whatever field that interests them. For me as a lawyer, the South Asian Bar Association of North America has been an important source of relationships and mentorship. I’ve found it is often easier to form relationships and seek advice from other South Asians, who are very willing and interested in providing guidance, mentorship, and friendship to the up-and-coming generation.
