SABA-NJ is a voluntary association of attorneys who are dedicated to the needs, concerns and interests of the South Asian community in New Jersey.
We support the professional development and advancement of our members through networking opportunities, educational events, mentoring and advocacy. Our objectives are to provide a networking forum for all South Asian attorneys and law students in the New Jersey area and to educate and disseminate information to the South Asian community in New Jersey about legal access and relevant legal issues. Also, SABA-NJ collaborates with other bar associations and voluntary organizations to maximize diversity in professional networking opportunities and our visibility in the community.
SABA-NJ is a chapter of the South Asian Bar Association of North America which provides a vital link between South Asian lawyers and the South Asian community across North America. Learn more about SABANA here.
2024 Executive Board and Regional Representatives
Prema L. Roddam
President
Prema is a senior associate with Fragomen, Del Ray, Bernsen & Loewy in its Matawan NJ office. She focuses her practice in the areas of global mobility, corporate immigration, related corporate compliance and advisory services. Her experience spans across various industry verticals such as Telecom, IT, Healthcare, Pharma and Entertainment. She is admitted to practice in the State of New York. Prema is actively involved and supports several non-profit organizations that benefit the South-Asian diaspora. She is dedicated to advocating for women empowerment and women's rights and serves as the Vice-President, Board of Directors for Manavi (manavi.org). She also serves as the co-chair for the TiE-NJ Women with a mission to foster women entrepreneurs (nj.tie.org). Prema is also a member of the Diversity Committee of the NJ State Bar Association.
Sara Khan-Duprat
President-Elect
Sara Khan-Duprat is an Associate at Segal McCambridge, where she practices insurance defense and professional malpractice lawsuits. Formerly, she practiced as a medical malpractice, and as auto insurance defense attorney. Sara has been a member of SABA-NJ since she graduated Seton Hall Law School in 2020. She was formerly the Director of Sponsorships for SABA-NJ in 2023. Sara also holds a MPH from Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health, and a Certificate in Leadership and Management for Lawyers from Bucerius Law School in Germany.
Rippi K. Karda
Immediate Past President
Rippi K. Karda serves as the SABA-NJ 2024 Immediate Past President, Chair of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Commission of New Jersey, Co-Chair of the NJ Punjabi Chamber of Commerce, Treasurer of the Women of Excellence Network, and Advisory Board Member for Centerforce Conference. As an Associate General Counsel in the Public Policy, Law and Security department at Verizon Communications Inc., Rippi handles contracts for Sourcing involving Human Resources Benefits/Plans, Supplier Diversity, Advertising Agencies, Contact Centers, Contingent Workforce and Executive Recruiting.
Chaitali R. Gandhi
Vice President of Affiliate Relations
Chaitali R. Gandhi has been in-house counsel for Liberty Mutual since 2021. In her capacity, she conducts all stages of litigation. She has been an active member of SABA-NJ for a few years, and currently serves as the VP of Affiliate Relations.
She earned her JD from Rutgers Law where she was a member of a number of affinity student bar organizations and the Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal. She received her bachelor’s in biology from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Hozaifa Cassubhai
Vice President of Programming
A partner at Bailey Duquette P.C., Hozaifa Cassubhai practices civil and complex commercial litigation, overseeing the firm’s New Jersey and Washington State matters. With Big law training combined with a federal district court clerkship and in-house counsel background, Hozaifa is a versatile advocate and counselor with significant experience in state and federal courts and arbitration forums covering a broad range of business-to-business, corporate governance, employment, and other commercial disputes. He has been recognized as a Rising Star (2014-2018) and Super Lawyer (2019-2024) for business litigation.
Hozaifa received his B.A. in History from Boston College and attended the Seattle University School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude, served as the Note & Comment Editor on the Law Review, and, upon graduation, was named his class’s Faculty Scholar and Student Speaker. A product of Bergen County, Hozaifa spent nearly ten years in the Pacific Northwest before returning to New Jersey, which he is proud to call home.
Tanvi Valsangikar
Vice President of Public Relations
Tanvi Valsangikar serves as the SABA-NJ 2024 Vice President of Public Relations and Secretary of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Media Law. As Legal Counsel for Springer Nature, Tanvi handles contracts, licensing, pre-publication review, copyright, and trademark matters.
Prior to Springer Nature, Tanvi was a Legal Fellow at Penguin Random House. She earned her J.D from Rutgers Law School, 2022, where she was the Senior Notes Editor for the Rutgers Law Record, and was the Vice President of Community Affairs for APALSA. She received her B.S. in Public Health from the University of Maryland in 2019.
Suhani Patel
Vice President of Sponsorships
Suhani Patel is an Attorney at FINRA through their Honors Program. She contributes to Enforcement's investigation and decisions regarding disciplinary actions against individuals or firms. She also provides support to the investigations and litigation team.
Prior to joining FINRA, Suhani interned at several respected corporations in New Jersey and New York. She earned her J.D from Rutgers Law School, 2022 and was awarded The Allan Axelrod Prize at graduation. While at Rutgers, she was the Editor in Chief for the Rutgers Business Law Review. Her note, Are Streaming Services, the Modern Day Insiders was published in the 2021 Fall issue. Suhani was also a clinical student in the Federal Tax Clinic, where she provided tax assistance to low income individuals. She received her B.B.A, cum laude, in Finance from the University of Cincinnati in 2019.
Akum K. Singh
Treasurer
Akum K. Singh is currently Associate Corporate Counsel at Saks OFF 5TH. She handles commercial contracts related to information technology, software licensing, information security, financial services, consulting, cloud services, supply chain/logistics, confidentiality, and a wide range of other goods and services. Akum also counsels the business on corporate finance and transactional matters and provides guidance on privacy regulations and assists in managing privacy compliance for the company.
Prior to joining Saks OFF 5TH, Akum was an attorney at a New Jersey firm where she represented clients in a wide range of complex litigation issues, focusing on commercial and contract dispute matters. She earned her J.D. from Rutgers Law School in 2022 with a Certificate in Corporate and Business Law, where she was Senior Editor for the Rutgers Business Law Review. She received her B.A., cum laude, in Political Science with a minor in International and Global Studies from Rutgers University in 2019.
Minal Patel
Corresponding Secretary
Minal Patel is a corporate associate at DLA Piper focusing on mergers and acquisitions primarily in the technology, life sciences and healthcare industries. She graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 2023. She first became a member of SABA-NJ when she was awarded SABA-NJ’s Women Scholarship for women’s history month as a 3L law student. Minal currently serves on the board as the Corresponding Secretary.
Mishita Jethi
Recording Secretary
Mishita Jethi is a Partner at Chugh, LLP where she practices immigration law. Mishita has extensive experience with a wide variety of employment-based immigrant and non-immigrant petitions. She earned her B.A, LL.B (Hons) from National Law Institute University, India in 2010 and her LL.M from the University of Chicago Law School in 2014.
Mishita has been a member of SABA NJ since 2017. She has previously served on the Executive Board of SABA NJ as Secretary in 2018, and as Treasurer in 2019.
Naju R. Lathia
Regional Representative - North Region
Naju R. Lathia, partner in the New Jersey office of Day Pitney LLP, assists clients in a broad spectrum of areas, from litigating complex commercial matters in state and federal court to conducting sensitive internal and white-collar investigations. She also represents employers in a wide range of matters where she provides criminal defense advice and representation to management when they are faced with criminal issues. She also has experience litigating product liability and tort matters. Naju frequently writes articles on topics including cannabis, employment and cybersecurity issues. She is the co-chair of the Law Partners section of the South Asian Bar Association of North America, and a member of both the Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association of New Jersey and the South Asian Bar Association of New Jersey. Naju was chosen as one of the “2021 New Leaders of the Bar” by the New Jersey Law Journal and was a recipient of Day Pitney’s Coleman Award for outstanding pro bono work in 2018. Naju earned her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and her B.A., summa cum laude, from Rutgers University. She is admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York.
Rachna B. Malkana
Regional Representative - Central Region
Rachna B. Malkana is an attorney admitted to the State of New Jersey. Her area of practice is real estate law, both commercial and residential. Ms. Malkana obtained her B.S. degree from Rutgers University with a major in Administration of Justice and a minor in Psychology. She obtained her Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law. She worked with private law firms in New York and New Jersey in areas of litigation, class action suits and mediation/arbitration. She formed her own practice in 2003 as Law Offices of Rachna B. Malkana and has been serving on the board of SABA-NJ since 2016 as Executive Liaison to Law Students, Treasurer, Vice-President, President-Elect and then President. Along with her role as Immediate Past President, Rachna was appointed to serve as SABA North America's Election Commissioner in the 2023 election to oversee their entire national election process. She now serves as a SABA-NJ Central Jersey Regional Representative. In addition, Rachna is a Co-Chair of the Real Estate Committee for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and Chair of the Solo/Small Firm Committee for SABA North America as well as SABA-NJ.
Mahesh Rajan
Regional Representative - Central Region
Mahesh Rajan is the founder of Rajan Legal PC, with more than 20 years of legal experience. He received his Juris Doctorate and Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Seton Hall University. Mahesh concentrates his practice on complex commercial transactions including representing developers, owners and managers of large real estate holdings including hospitality, large retail establishments, and apartment complexes. His experience includes representing clients in acquisition, development and management of hotels, apartments, gas stations, shopping centers, pharmacies, adult medical daycare facilities, liquor stores, daycares, and all forms of franchised businesses.
Mahesh is the past founding Vice President of SABA-NJ, and has served on the District VIII Ethics Committee for the Office of Attorney Ethics.
Amith Parikh
Regional Representative - South Region
Amit Parikh is Assistant Deputy General Counsel at Comcast with a practice in patent law where he has shaped Comcast’s patent portfolio by managing the process for obtaining high quality patent assets in a vast array of technologies such as generative AI, video, broadband, home security, IOT, ad tech, and many other areas. In addition to managing the legal aspects of patenting at Comcast, Amit also leads the business side of patents at Comcast such as harvesting, communications, vendor management, etc. Moreover, Amit’s knowledge of intellectual property law is recognized by business leaders at Comcast as they turn to Amit to solve complex intellectual property problems in various M&A deals and by drafting policies and procedures for the use and implementation of generative AI at Comcast. Amit received his J.D. from Fordham Law School, and is currently admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Prior to becoming an attorney, Amit was an engineer at Citigroup, and received his B.S. in Computer Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.