PRESIDENT - Sunny Kakwani

As Your Counsel’s founder and principal attorney, Sunny provides a disruptive voice in an industry stagnated by convention. He established AYC’s model of personalized legal services + strategic business counseling after more than 10 years (and 10,000 hours) practicing on both coasts. AYC is a boutique business law practice dedicated to providing best-in-class representation across all of its focus areas through its unwavering subscription to its core values: empathy, integrity, caliber and community.

Sunny, born in New Delhi and raised in New York, discovered his passion for policy and advocacy early in life, which led him to Washington, DC in pursuit of his undergraduate degree in Business, Economics and Public Policy at George Washington University. That reverence evolved into practice while he studied law in Boston, MA at Suffolk University. In his free time Sunny enjoys pro bono work, mentoring, traveling, biking, yoga, meditation, coaching, playing basketball, golf and snowboarding.

VICE PRESIDENT - Akriti Bhargava

Akriti is a Policy Analyst with NREL’s Strategic Energy Analysis Center, focusing on clean energy law and policy. She holds a J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon concentrating in Energy Law and International Law, and a B.A. in environmental studies and economics from the University of Vermont.

Building and deepening relationships has always been her top priority, and so she has focused on community-building wherever life has taken her. At UVM, Akriti was the Co-Captain of the college's Bollywood dance team, UVM Jazbaa, and at L&C Law, she founded and led the L&C South Asian Law Student Association. While in law school, Akriti also served as the President of L&C Law's Student Bar Association. In the Oregon legal community, Akriti is a member of the Oregon Judicial Diversity Coalition, the OSB Alternatives to the Bar Exam Taskforce, and the OSB Licensure Pathways Development Committee.

Treasurer - Moiz Bharmal

I am the Treasurer for the South Asian Bar Association of Oregon and a commercial litigation associate at Davis Wright Tremaine (“DWT”) based in Portland, OR. My practice encompasses a broad range of commercial disputes, including matters involving breach of contract, fraud, and business tort liability. Prior to DWT, I was a law clerk at the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio where I assisted in legal research and writing on child exploitation and compassionate release issues.

I am committed to making a difference in local and legal communities. While at Cornell Law School, I assisted my clients in preparing applications for asylum and DACA. Before law school, I reviewed grant proposals and other work for a Chicago-based immigrant rights organization and worked for as an academic consultant in China where I advised high school students on their U.S. college applications.

I now look forward to bringing my passion for community-building to SABA. I attended the South Asian Bar Association of North America’s annual conference in Toronto, Canada, inspiring me to take an active role in helping to unite our local South Asian lawyers, judges, and law students. I look forward to seeing how SABA Oregon continues to grow as we organize events and opportunities for our small, but strong South Asian legal community.

SECRETARY - Sujata Pagedar

Sujata Pagedar is a seasoned governance professional with 20+ years of experience. Sujata has held leadership roles in a variety of areas, including Regulatory, Finance, Legal, Investor Relations, and Compliance.

Currently, as Corporate Secretary and Senior Managing General Counsel, Sujata oversees the Board meetings, agendas and materials, development of the proxy, equity issuances and other SEC filings. Sujata also supervises the Compliance, Legal Operations and Technology, and Corporate Policies teams.

Sujata has a BA from University of Chicago and holds a J.D. from Ohio State University. She recently relocated to Portland. Sujata currently sits on the Finance Committee of the PGE Foundation and is a member of the Board of the Portland Opportunities Industrial Center.

Chair, Young Lawyers Division - Radhika Shah

Radhika is an associate at Miller Nash, LLP on the firm’s construction and insurance recovery team. She also has a robust pro-bono practice, which includes Temporary Restraining Order/FAPA cases, housing eviction and defense, and work through Multnomah County’s Children’s Representation Project. Additionally, Radhika participates in several Multnomah Bar Association Committees, working to connect and support diverse attorneys and folks from non-traditional backgrounds throughout the state of Oregon.

Radhika has an Honors Bachelor of Science from Oregon State University, specifically in Environmental Science and Oceanography, and holds a J.D. from Lewis & Clark. She currently co-coaches the Sunset High School mock trial team and sits on Lake Oswego’s DEI Advisory Board.

MEMBER AT LARGE - Justice Aruna Masih

Aruna Masih has been a member and leader in Oregon’s legal community for over 25 years. She and her husband came here in 1997, after law school, with an appreciation for Oregon’s natural beauty and a goal to use their legal education to serve the community. She pursued a civil rights and worker rights law practice with the Portland law firm of Bennett Hartman, LLP, and her husband became a public defender. She has also served as Chair of the Oregon State Bar Association’s Advisory Committee for Diversity and Inclusion and its Labor and Employment Section Executive Committee and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Oregon Minority Lawyers Association, the Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation, the Oregon Women Lawyers, the Multnomah Bar Association, and the Roseway Recovery Cafe. She has been a Constitution Team coach at McDaniel High School since 2017.

Public service was instilled in Aruna at an early age by her parents, a Punjabi Indian father and British mother, who served as medical professionals in a rural hospital in Punjab, India. She was born in New York but grew up in India, returning to this country in high school. While in India, she and her brothers attended Woodstock School, an international school in the Himalayan mountains. She feels a deep connection to the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and is grateful to have found a home and an opportunity to serve the community here in Oregon. In August of 2023, Governor Tina Kotek appointed Aruna to the Oregon Supreme Court. She was sworn into office as a Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court on September 1, 2023.

MEMBER AT LARGE - Nishat Hasan

Nishat Hasan is a Senior Director of Intellectual Property at Lam Research Corporation. She is responsible for developing Lam’s intellectual property portfolio.

Prior to joining Lam, Nishat was at HP, Inc. While in private practice, Nishat had a varied practice representing a global list of clients in IP litigation, patent and trademark prosecution, and brand protection. Nishat began her legal career in Delaware, where she served on the board of SABA-Delaware.

Nishat received an A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in Physics and Economics with a minor in Mathematics.

Nishat holds a J.D., Order of the Barrister, from the University of Pittsburgh. Before law school, she was an Associate Economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

MEMBER AT LARGE - Nida Hasan

Nida was born in Canada and moved to New York with her family before they made their way to her home state of Arizona. She attended the University of Arizona and received her Bachelor of Science in Public Health with a focus on Health Systems and Delivery. Her undergraduate research experience combined with her work at an education advocacy non-profit sparked her passion for the law.

She continued her spirit of advocacy as a 3L at Lewis & Clark Law School in her capacity as President of the Student Bar Association and Vice President of the South Asian Law Students Association. She is looking forward to connecting South Asian law students and attorneys in Oregon and building community as a SABA Member at Large.

MEMBER AT LARGE - Ankur Doshi

Ankur Doshi is the General Counsel of the Oregon State Bar (OSB), and represents the OSB in all non-disciplinary matters. He provides legal advice to the OSB in matters of bar governance, regulation of lawyers, employment, policy development, and public records and meetings law. He also leads the regulatory team, provides ethics advice to all OSB members, and writes and speaks on ethics and mandatory abuse reporting issues for Continuing Legal Education programs and OSB publications. He acts as the Bar Liaison for the Legal Ethics Committee. Before his current role with the OSB, Ankur was the Deputy General Counsel for TriMet, where he represented TriMet on labor and employment matters. Prior to that, he was litigation corporate counsel at a privately held corporation, where he represented the corporation and its subsidiaries in judicial and administrative litigation. He served as chair for the Legal Ethics Committee in 2016 and as chair for the State Professional Responsibility Board in 2017. He received a B.A. from the George Washington University and his J.D. from Cornell Law School.

MEMBER AT LARGE - Judge Mustafa Kasubhai

Judge Mustafa Kasubhai (he/him) is a child of immigrants and he was born and raised in southern California. After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1992, he attended UO Law and received his J.D. in 1996. Judge Kasubhai was appointed to the federal bench in 2018, following 11 years of service as a Lane County Circuit Court Judge.

Prior to joining the state bench, Judge Kasubhai practiced plantiff’s civil litigation throughout southern Oregon with offices in Eugene and Klamath Falls, Oregon and served as a member of the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board. Judge Kasubhai is the first Muslim American federal judge the country. His service as a U.S. Magistrate Judge, and prior service as state trial court judge and member of the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board, are marked by a deep dedication to access to justice, including a more diverse and representative legal community.

In a recent article featured in the OWLSAdvance Sheet, entitled "Pronouns and Privilege," Judge Kasubhai described his "own continuing journey, with all its stumbling and fumbling, toward equity." Along with attorney Sarah Malik, Judge Kasubhai also shared a poignant narrative on being a Muslim American in the Oregon legal community the Oregon State Bar Bulletin entitled, “Is There a Place for Us? On Being a Muslim American in Oregon’s Legal Community.” He is a founding member of the South Asian Bar Association of Oregon, and the Oregon Muslim Bar Association.

STUDENT LIAISON - Ananya Raghavan

Ananya is a current third year law student at Lewis and Clark Law School with intended specializations in environmental and energy law, and is passionate about environmental and energy justice. She graduated from UC Berkeley in 2022, double majoring in Data Science and Environmental Studies with a minor in Public Policy. She is the president of the South Asian Law Student Association and the vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging of the Student Bar Association, and is passionate about helping build community and support in the legal field.

STUDENT Liaison - Paril Patel

My name is Paril Patel (puh-rill puh-tell) and I am a 2L law student at Willamette University. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, where I earned my Bachelor of Arts in History with a minor in Ethnic Studies from the University of La Verne. I went on to complete my Master of Arts in Cultural Studies at Claremont Graduate University and a Masters in Legal Studies from the University of Southern California. I moved to Oregon for law school and really grew into the idea of finishing my law school journey here and eventually sit to take the Oregon bar.

I am interested in cannabis and the education policy surrounding it, along with issues around constitutional law and prison reform. My goal after graduating is to become a professor, not sure where exactly but I do suspect it will involve history, philosophy, and cultural studies in some way, shape or form.