During her Fellowship, Shilpa Sadhasivam developed her litigation skills by working on a wide variety of consumer protection and civil rights cases. In her first year at TZ, she participated in drafting various motions, including motions for class certification, opposition to a motion to dismiss, and motions for preliminary and final class action settlement approval. Shilpa also participated in discovery and mediation of a civil rights case against a prison healthcare contractor that denied medication for opioid use disorder to incarcerated individuals. She furthered her trial skills by taking and defending depositions in a class action lawsuit against the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education for its deceptive marketing to prospective online students.
Shilpa also had the opportunity to work on several appellate and amicus matters during her Fellowship. She contributed to the briefing for Glover v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, focusing on the legality of credit card fees under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Shilpa also assisted in drafting an amicus brief on behalf of academic scholars and American Economic Liberties Project for the Supreme Court case NetChoice v. Paxton.
As part of her Fellowship, Shilpa spent three months at Public Justice in its Access to Justice Project. There, she helped draft two amicus briefs challenging forced arbitration practices before the California Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit. She also took a deposition of a county sheriff, in a case against a prison telecom company and St. Clair County, Michigan, for their practice of restricting U.S. mail to incarcerated people in favor of expensive messaging services offered by Securus.
The Fellowship provided Shilpa with valuable litigation experience, mentorship, and exposure to various areas of law that will support her throughout her career.
We look forward to hearing from you.