The South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut has elected an all-female slate of officers for 2020, headed up by attorney Rashmi Chandra as the organization's eighth president.

A former technology and intellectual property lawyer at Aetna in Avon, Chandra is flanked by Vice President Nandita Ruchandani, Secretary Choity Khan and Treasurer Radhika Tahiliani. Chandra ascends to the presidency from the vice president's seat and has been active with the bar since 2016.

Chandra said "enthusiasm has only grown" at the South Asian Bar, with increased membership in recent years. "I'm hopeful that this year we'll see even more participation. We have three new board members who are all younger lawyers, so I think this is going to be a good year."

Immediate past president and Day Pitney partner Namita Tripathi Shah expressed enthusiasm about the new board and president. "We are thrilled that Rashmi has been elected president of SABAC," she said, adding that Chandra "immediately added value as a board member with fresh ideas for member engagement. She showed a deep appreciation for the value of the organization in her life and is committed to bringing that value to others."

"I worked side by side with Namita and appreciate her commitment to SABAC and look forward to carrying forward that commitment and stewardship with vigor and with the help of our members and board members," Chandra said. "I am also excited to work with some newer members on the board this year."

Beyond maintaining strong membership, Chandra says she plans to increase engagement among South Asian Bar members and expand outreach to young people in the South Asian community, particularly students who are thinking about careers in law. "What we want is not necessarily more paying members, but members who participate throughout the year," she said, noting that the bar has developed relationships with the University of Connecticut and Quinnipiac schools of law to reach out to a new generation of lawyers.

"Part of the challenge is the challenge that any minority population faces, which is the biases that people have," Chandra added. "South Asian people becoming lawyers was not really done 20 or 30 years ago, and we do see that it has grown. The sense that South Asians are not there in the legal field is slowly going away. We are building an awareness and telling students and undergrads that this is a profession that has a lot of possibilities."

Including her time at Aetna, which continued through last year, Chandra has worked as a technology and intellectual property attorney for more than 23 years, previously at W.W. Grainger and Kirkland & Ellis. As lead IP counsel at Aetna, she helped establish a digital accessibility center and has overseen legal and strategic enforcement and maintenance of intellectual property assets. She also served on the company's Diversity and Inclusion Council.

Outside of her primary jobs, Chandra has also been a faculty member at the Practising Law Institute in New York and at Harappa Education in India. She received her law degree at Columbia Law School and served as an editor for the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

While female advancement and leadership has been prioritized at law firms across the country, Chandra said this year's election of an all-female slate of officers came about by chance. "I think it just happened," she said, adding that she has been happy to see increased participation by both male and female members. Pasts members of SABAC's board of directors include past president Cecil J. Thomas, who led efforts in 2014 to establish a scholarship fund for South Asian law students, and intellectual property attorney Andy I. Corea of Murtha Cullina.

"Our board is really a melting pot, even among the South Asian community," Chandra said. "We have Christians, Muslims and Hindus, just like the South Asian subcontinent. It's a melting pot and we try to be very mindful of that as well."

Throughout the year, the bar will be visible at community events throughout the state, promoting diversity and inclusion and serving as a resource for South Asian lawyers and law students, as the bar has done since its founding in 2004. SABAC is a member organization of the South Asian Bar Association of North America.