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Tejpal Singh Chawla,
J.D.
Tejpal Singh Chawla has been an associate at Crowell & Moring LLP
since 1998, and specializes in government contracts and general
litigation. As part of his practice, Mr. Chawla has worked on
complex commercial litigation arising in federal and state
courts, and has particular expertise in the areas of
telecommunications and international litigation. Mr. Chawla has
litigated cases involving the False Claims Act and the Foreign
Sovereign Immunity Act, and participated in bid protests before
the General Accounting Office.
Mr.
Chawla received a BA in Political Science from Boston University,
magna cum laude, and his JD with Honors from the George
Washington University Law School. Mr. Chawla was a member of the
Public Contract Law Journal, and the George Washington University
Law School Moot Court Board after finishing as a Semi-finalist in
the 1997 Van Vleck Constitutional Law Moot Court Competition. His
past experience includes internships with the Office of the
United States Trade Representative, Federal District Court Judge
Deborah K. Chasanow, D.C. Superior Court Judge Ann O'Regan Keary,
and Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II.
Mr.
Chawla is licensed to practice before the California Supreme
Court, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and the United
States District Court for the District of Columbia. Mr. Chawla is
also an active member of the D.C. Bar Association, the Asian
Pacific American Bar Association (APABA), the South Asian Bar
Association and the Association of Sikh Professionals.
Mr. Chawla is a former
President of the APABA Educational Fund (2001-2002), and in 2002,
Mr. Chawla was appointed by D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams as a
Commissioner to the D.C. Commission on Asian Pacific Islander
Affairs (until 2005). Mr. Chawla is widely recognized as the
first Sikh American to sit on a D.C. Commission in the history of
the City. Mr. Chawla also actively works with local and national
civic and law enforcement officials on diversity issues and sits
on the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia’s Bias Crime
Task Force, and the Metropolitan Police Department’s Biased
Policing Initiative.
In addition to these activities, Mr. Chawla sits on the Board of
Directors of the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Taskforce (SMART).
Founded in 1996, SMART is a non-profit, non-partisan organization
whose mission is to combat prejudice, protect civil rights and
religious freedoms, and provide resources to empower the Sikh
American community. As part of his work with SMART, Mr. Chawla
has worked directly with victims of discrimination and has helped
construct broad and diverse national coalitions to prevent hate
crimes, protect civil liberties and promote diversity.
Mr. Chawla is a frequent
guest speaker before national organizations on issues related to
hate crimes and religious discrimination, and he frequently
participates in national, local and governmental outreach efforts
to promote diversity in the workplace. Since September 11th,
Mr. Chawla has been active in supporting the efforts of numerous
civil liberty and hate crime initiatives, and has frequently met
with senior members of Congress, the Department of Justice,
Department of Transportation and the FBI to reduce hate crimes
and prohibit improper religious and racial profiling.
In 2002, Mr. Chawla was recognized as one of the Top 30 Most
Influential Asian Pacific Americans Under the Age of 30 by the
online magazine Politicalcircus.com. Mr. Chawla is the son of
Harbhajan Singh and Jagjit Kaur Chawla, and was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Chawla currently resides in the
District of Columbia.
Contact address: Crowell & Moring LLP, 1001
Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004.
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