Our Annual Public Interest and Installation Dinner is our largest event of the year where we celebrate community service, welcome our new boards, and honor distinguished guests with the Judicial Appreciation, Trailblazer of the Year and Public Interest awards.
We are honored to have Luis Céspedes, Judicial Appointments Secretary in the Office of the Governor, as our Keynote Speaker.
Please join us as we congratulate and honor our 2024 Awardees:
- Judicial Appreciation Award: Honorable Shashi Kewalramani
- Public Interest Award: Maya Roy
- Trailblazer Award: Janani Rana
Early bird tickets are on sale now!
Please email: socalsaba@gmail.com with any questions and for sponsorship opportunities.
Past award honorees include:
2014-2023
2023 – Purvi Patel (Morrison Foerster); Faizah Malik (Public Counsel): Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Samantha Jessner
2022 – Honorable Neetu S. Badhan-Smith; Honorable Sergio C. Tapia II; Seema Ahmad; Lifetime Achievement Award: Anjan Choudhury
2018 – Hon. Upinder Kalra (LASC); Paul Grewal (Facebook, Inc.); Munmeeth Soni (Immigrant Defender’s Law Center)
2017 – Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye (Cal. Supreme Ct.); Kalpana Srinivasan (Susman Godfrey LLP); Bhupinder Malik (SALDEF)
2016 – Hon. Jacqueline Nguyen (9th Circ.), Hon. Halim Dhanidina (LASC), Nisha Vyas (Public Counsel)
2015 – Hon. Beverly Reid O’Connell (C.D.Cal.); Suma Mathai (LA Center for Law and Justice)
2014 – Hon. Holly Fujie (LASC); Prof. Jyoti Nanda (UCLA Law School); Firdaus Dordi (Federal Public Defender’s Office)
2009-2013
2013 – Hon. Virginia A. Phillips (C.D.Cal.); Shivbir Grewal (Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth); Laboni Hoq (Asian American Advancing Justice – LA)
2012 – Hon. Peter Espinoza (LASC); Ajay Patel (Sony Network Entertainment); Shashi Hanuman (Public Counsel)
2011 – Hon. Consuelo Marshall (C.D.Cal.); Navneet Chugh (The Chugh Firm); Rupa Goswami (USAO)
2010 – Erwin Chemerinsky (UCI Law School); Arnold Peter (Peter Rubin & Simon); Sonal Ambegaokar (National Immigration Law Center)
2009 – Tom O’Brien (USAO) and Muneer Ahmand (American University Law Professor); Alka Sagar (USAO); Ahilan Arulananthanam (ACLU – Southern California)
2004-2008
2008 – Kamala Harris (SF DA Office); Javade Chaudhri (Sempra Energy); Nitasha Sawhney (Garcia & Calderon)
2007 – Sonali Kolhatkar (KPFK Pacifica Radio); Arif Alikhan (LA Mayor’s Office); Amand Thind (Immigration Center for Women & Children)
2006 – Shakeel Syed (Islamic Shura Council); Hon. Sanjay T. Kumar (LASC); Najeeba Syeed-Miller (Asian Pacific American Dispute Resolution Center)
2005 – Vanita Gupta (NAACP Legal Defense Fund); Rita Gunasekaran (Haight, Brown & Bonesteel); Manujsha Kulkarni (National Health Law Program)
2004 – Vikram Amar (Hastings Law Professor); Shan Thever (Thever & Assoc.); Mona Patel-Sikora (Public Counsel)
* In 2011, the Keynote Speaker Award was replaced with the Judicial Appreciation Award