America
Indian American lawyer shortlisted for prestigious award
New York, Aug 14
Indian American attorney
Richa Naujoks née Gautam has been shortlisted for Thomson Reuters
Foundation’s TrustLaw Lawyer of the Year award.
Celebrating
groundbreaking pro bono projects undertaken by legal teams with NGOs and
social enterprises around the world, the award recognises lawyers who
have gone above and beyond in providing exceptional pro bono support.
Among
individual nominees, Richa Naujoks is the only Indian and the only US
lawyer shortlisted for this prestigious award, said a statement.
A
senior associate at Nixon Peabody LLP’s New York City office, she is a
graduate of the National Law School of India University in Bangalore and
the University of Washington in Seattle (LLM). She currently serves as
co-chair of the India Committee of the American Bar Association’s
Section of International Law.
Richa Naujoks was nominated by
Mumbai-based Wello for her outstanding pro bono work on the complex
restructuring of Wello’s US and Indian legal and operational structure.
Wello makes water wheels that help women safely carry water from distant
water sources to their homes.
TrustLaw connects the world’s
leading legal teams to provide free legal assistance to organisations
working for social and environmental change. It is able to draw from its
network of over 100,000 lawyers across the world to meet the legal
needs of NGOs and social enterprises.
In addition to Wello,
other South Asian projects and NGOs are represented within the various
categories for the 2015 awards. Indian firm LawQuest is nominated for
its support of Nazdeek Trust with multiple projects around its efforts
to organise tea workers for right of association and a basic minimum
wage. Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa coordinated a team of firms
including White and Case, Mughal Barristers, J Sagar Associates, and
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP to provide research on the
admissibility of character evidence in rape cases for the Bangladesh
Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST).
Linklaters led a team of
lawyers from Hewlett-Packard Company, HSBC Bank PLC, DLA Piper, and
Adnan Kelana Haryanto & Hermanto to help Indian NGO Vidya Sagar
understand legal capacity in disability legislation.