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The South Asian Bar Association of Chicago

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The SABA Chicago Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to providing financial support and promoting pro bono work and volunteerism through: (i) our affiliation with the Indo American Center neighborhood legal clinic; (ii) our relationships with other public interest organizations; and (iii) other activities consistent with our mission, including our funding of summer fellowships for qualifying law students who wish to work with public interest or non profit organizations serving the South Asian community at large.

We welcome support from law firms, corporations, and individuals, and encourage individuals to participate in our activities and fundraisers.



SABA Chicago Foundation Executive Board

Debjani Desai, President

Debjani D. Desai is the General Counsel for the Illinois Office of Comptroller. She leads a team of lawyers in Chicago and Springfield to provide legal counsel on state comptroller mandates, such as ordering payments through the Treasury, managing the state’s fiscal accounts, and conducting audits and reports on the state’s fiscal health. She advises the office on litigation, legislation, finance, operations, compliance, and labor and employment matters. Her legal assistance focuses on making government more efficient and effective, advancing transparency, and saving taxpayers money. Debjani is currently a member of the SABA Advisory Council and has previously served as SABA President, VP of Programming, and General Director. She serves on several boards and committees focused on public service and diversity. 

Aon Hussain, Vice President 

Aon is a litigator in the Complex Commercial Disputes practice group in the Chicago office of Nixon Peabody, LLP. He represents individuals and companies in state and federal courts across the country.

His broad experience includes representing businesses of all sizes in a variety of business disputes. This includes representing businesses in lawsuits relating to fraud, statutory claims, breach of fiduciary duty, and business torts. He also represents businesses in trade secret litigation involving breach of non-compete, non-solicitation, or non-disclosure clauses. Aon also counsels clients in health care litigation matters related to breach of contract, fraud and abuse, prompt pay, and payer-provider disputes. He also defends medical device manufacturers against product liability lawsuits.


Lynn Preshad, Secretary

Lynn Preshad practices mortgage foreclosure defense and immigration law at Dreyfus Law Group. She earned her Juris Doctor degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in May 2009 and was admitted to the Illinois State Bar in November 2009. While attending law school, Ms. Preshad concentrated in litigation, immigration law, criminal law, and constitutional law, and dedicated her extracurricular time to externing at the Cook County Public Defender’s Office, the ABA mentor-mentee program, Mock Trial Board, Amnesty International, American Civil Liberties Union, and participating in Client Counseling, Moot Court, and Mock Trial competitions. During and after law school, she volunteered for, CARPLS, CVLS, and SABA Chicago’s “Cyriac Kappil” Indo‐American Center Pro bono Clinic, where she continues to volunteer. In 2014, Ms. Preshad received an award from CVLS in recognition of her commitment to pro bono and her efforts to further Chicago Volunteer Legal Services’ mission to provide equal access to justice. Ms. Preshad is currently a member of the ISBA, the CBA, AILA, and SABA Chicago. She is fluent in Hindi/Urdu and understands some Punjabi, Gujarati, and Spanish.

Parag Bhosale, Treasurer 

For the past 20 years, Parag has fought for the rights of those wrongfully injured at work and by the negligence of others. He has successfully tried over 30 cases to verdict during his career.

Parag has also successfully argued cases in Federal Court as well as the 1st and 2nd District Appellate Courts of Illinois. He handles cases in Cook, Lake, Will, DuPage, and Kane Counties.

He has lectured before other attorneys, physicians, nurses, and union members at continuing education seminars and meetings. He also volunteers his time teaching inner-city youths through the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago. He is a past SABA Chicago VP of Membership and has served as a panelist at SABA National Conventions.


Lovleen Ahuja

Loveleen Ahuja has worked as a Cook County Public Defender for nearly 16 years.  She has spent her entire legal career representing a diverse background of the indigent community accused of various crimes, making sure their rights are protected and that their voices are heard.  Loveleen is currently assigned to the Homicide Task Force Unit and represents people that are accused of first-degree murder.

Loveleen has argued countless motions and hearings and has litigated hundreds of bench and jury trials.  She has argued cases ranging from DUI, domestic and armed robbery cases to a wide variety of complex litigation, including predatory criminal sexual assault and murder cases. 

Loveleen is involved in several charitable organizations including being a mentor for the Diversity Scholarship Foundation and Lawyers in the classroom, which teaches constitutional law to various grade school students around the city.  Loveleen has also been a guest lecturer for UIC/John Marshall school of law as well as a judge for several mock trial competitions for DePaul, Loyola and Kent Law Schools. 


Sheni Djurisic

Sheni Djurisic has accumulated a wide range of litigation experience including first chairing jury trials and bench trials.  Ms. Djurisic’s trial practice is complemented by her appellate experience which includes successfully submitting briefs and arguing before the Illinois Appellate Court and the Illinois Supreme Court.  Currently, her practice focuses in the areas of probate, elder law, estate planning and corporate matters.  Ms. Djurisic handles contested probate matters, has represented a variety of healthcare providers and has counseled business clients regarding corporate issues including employment law throughout her career.  Ms. Djurisic serves as court appointed counsel and as guardian ad litem in guardianship matters pending in the probate division of the Circuit Court of Cook County.  She lives in the Chicago area with her husband and two children.


Ridhi Madia 

Ridhi Madia is a commercial litigation associate at Chittenden, Murday & Novotny LLC where she represents clients in a variety of civil and commercial matters, including litigation involving tort claims, life and disability insurance contract issues, and ERISA issues, in federal and state courts. She is also passionate about social justice issues. While in undergrad, she interned for a local nonprofit that aimed to spread awareness about domestic and sexual violence in the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. While in law school she graduated with the Boyd Service Honors Award for her time volunteering for a local legal clinic that promoted legal access to underrepresented communities. She currently volunteers for the SABA Chicago’s “Cyriac Kappil” Indo-American Center for Pro Bono Clinic.

She obtained her B.A. from the University of Iowa in 2014, and her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2019. 


Anshuman Vaidya

Anshuman Vaidya serves in the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a Supervisory Attorney and as an Area Counsel for the IRS Chief Counsel’s Criminal Tax Division.  As Area Counsel, he is responsible for supervising attorneys in the Chief Counsel’s regional offices in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and St. Paul.  Anshuman oversees field advice and written legal analysis provided to supervisory special agents with IRS Criminal Investigation and to the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice on cases involving tax evasion, money laundering, and related federal crimes.

Anshuman previously served as an Assistant State’s Attorney and Deputy Supervisor with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. There, he supervised prosecutors in the Special Prosecutions Bureau assigned to the Public Corruption & Financial Crimes Unit.  Prior to that, he worked for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office, serving in both the Consumer Protection and Criminal Enforcement Divisions before being promoted to Supervisor of Revenue Prosecutions. As an Assistant Attorney General, Anshuman tried over a dozen cases and handled litigation in trial courts throughout Illinois and in U.S. District Court.  

Anshuman is an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law in the Legal Writing Department.  Anshuman previously served as a board member and honorary board member for the Asian American Bar Association of Greater Chicago.  He earned his B.S. in Communications from Northwestern University, his J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and his L.L.M. in Taxation from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.



Tanvi Patel

Tanvi Patel is an intellectual property attorney at Neal Gerber & Eisenberg in Chicago, IL, where she assists clients in protecting their innovations through all aspects of development and commercialization. Tanvi’s practice includes understanding clients’ and competitive intellectual property, procuring and developing clients’ intellectual property portfolios, and enforcing and/or defending against allegations of infringement.

Tanvi obtained her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign (2005), and her J.D. from DePaul University (2011).  Tanvi first became involved with SABA Chicago Foundation in 2018 as a Board Member.   


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