Confirmed Moderators

Harmeet Dhillon, Dhillon & Smith

Moderator for Keynote Presentation

Harmeet K. Dhillon is a founding partner of the law firm Dhillon & Smith LLP in Union Square, a corporate, litigation and real estate boutique. In 2008, Harmeet was the Republican nominee for California’s 13th Assembly District, representing the eastern half of San Francisco including Nob Hill, Telegraph Hill, Pacific Heights, the Castro, Mission and Financial Districts. She was the first Indian American woman in California history to run as either major party’s nominee for state office. She lost in the heavily Democratic district, but in her district with only 8% Republican registration received almost 17% of the vote.

Harmeet came to the U.S. from India as a small child and grew up in rural North Carolina. A graduate of Dartmouth College (where she was the Editor-in-Chief of the conservative Dartmouth Review) and the University of Virginia Law School (where she served on the Law Review and was President of the nation’s largest chapter of The Federalist Society) Harmeet clerked for Reagan appointee U.S. 4th Circuit Judge Paul. V. Niemeyer, and then practiced law in New York and London for international law firms before moving to the Bay Area. In 2007 Harmeet was named one of the nation’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and has won many awards for her pro bono legal work on behalf of refugees, victims of domestic violence, and religious discrimination plaintiffs.

She recently completed a two-year term as chair of the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California’s Civil Rights Committee, and is a former board and executive committee member of the ACLU. Harmeet is an occasional author, having served as Assistant Editor of the Heritage Foundation’s magazine, Policy Review; she has also authored several op/ed pieces on public policy issues in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The LA Times, The San Jose Mercury News, and recently on widely read conservative blogs.

In 2006 she was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a full voting member of the California Republican Party, where she served on the Resolutions and Platform Committees through 2008. By virtue of her winning the party nomination in 2008, she is again a full voting member of the California Republican Party, a member of its Executive Committee, statewide Chair of the Networks (outreach/coalitions) Leadership Committee, and also serves on the state party’s development, strategic planning, and base-building committees. In her spare time Harmeet sails, plays squash, knits, travels and enjoys life on San Francisco’s “crooked” Lombard Street, where she lives.

Jolsna John, Associate House Counsel, Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3

Moderator for Lawyering for Social Change

Jolsna John is the Associate House Counsel at Operating Engineers Local Union No. 3, a labour organization representing employees in the construction industry as well as civil service. Local 3 is the largest local of the International Union of Operating Engineers with over 43,000 members. Jolsna represents workers in Northern California, Northern Nevada, Utah and Hawaii. She litigates, performs transactional work, supports the union’s two charitable organizations, and provides advice and counsel to business representatives and union staff. In her off hours, Jolsna John serves as VP - Affiliate Relationships for NASABA and currently serves as the President of NASABA Foundation, NASABA's charitable arm. She is a member of the Public Interest Committee and the Corporate Counsel Committee. Jolsna obtained her Bachelors in Business Administration from The University of Texas at Austin and her Juris Doctorate from American University Washington College of Law. Jolsna is enthusiastic about public interest work and NASABA.

Sadhana Narayan, Narayan Law Firm

Moderator for Appellate Practice from Both Sides of the Bench

Ms. Narayan is the chief litigator and managing owner of The Narayan Law Firm, one of the largest South Asian American owned law firms in the country. She is the lead counsel on the Firm's Federal, Civil Rights and Employment practice areas and focuses primarily on 42 USC §1983 Civil Rights Litigation, Employment and Complex Litigation matters.

Ashok Ramani, Partner, Keker & Van Nest, LLP

Moderator for Managing Costs in Big Ticket IP Litigation

Ashok Ramani is a partner at Keker & Van Nest in San Francisco. He has tried several cases to verdict in areas spanning intellectual property, professional liability and criminal law. In addition to trial work, Ramani has conducted multiple internal trade-secret-theft investigations. He earned his Juris Doctor degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1998 and his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics magna cum laude with a minor in South Asian civilization from UC Berkeley in 1995. Ramani is presently co-chair of NASABA’s litigation section.

Anna Sankaran, Greenberg Traurig

Moderator for Litigating your Contractual Provisions

Anna Sankaran is a commercial litigator with subspecialties in bankruptcy and bankruptcy litigation, intellectual property litigation, and ERISA litigation. Anna represents institutional and individual clients in all stages of business disputes with an eye toward achieving creative business solutions for her clients. Anna has trial and appellate experience before the Massachusetts federal and state courts as well as experience representing clients in mediation and arbitration. She also has significant experience with class actions and other complex litigation, international clients and foreign law. In addition, Anna has extensive experience in insurance coverage.

Mansi H. Shah, Associate, Howrey LLP

Moderator for Mentoring our South Asian Sisters: She Wins, You Win!

Mansi Shah is an associate in Howrey’s intellectual property practice specializing in all areas of intellectual property law. Ms. Shah is active in patent litigation, antitrust investigations, client counseling, and prosecuting patent and trademark applications. In 2008, Ms. Shah was recognized by the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles County Bar Association for her pro bono service. Before joining Howrey, Ms. Shah was a software engineer at BAE Systems. While in law school, Ms. Shah interned at the USPTO Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, and served as the Executive Notes Editor of the AIPLA Quarterly Journal. Ms. Shah also interned at Microsoft. Ms. Shah obtained her J.D. degree from The George Washington University Law School and her B.S. degree in computer science from University of California, San Diego.

Lesley Varghese, Associate, Nixon Peabody

Moderator for Lesley Varghese, Associate, Nixon Peabody