Nitasha Kaur Sawhney is lawyer, strategist, and social justice advocate. She practices as an Equity Partner in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay Area offices of Garcia Hernández Sawhney LLP. Nitasha specializes in labor and employment and education law. She serves as outside general counsel to educational institutions where she advises on matters concerning governance and policy, labor management relations and negotiations, employment, educational foundations, public meeting laws, ethics and strategic planning and problem solving. Nitasha is also a certificate holder with the Association of Workplace Investigators, and she frequently speaks and provides training on Sexual Harassment and Retaliation prevention, Implicit Bias, Workplace Investigations, Creating Positive Work Environments, California Voting Rights Act, Ethics and Post-9/11 impacts on South Asian and Sikh communities including hate crimes and bullying.
Nitasha has been active with numerous local and national racial and social justice organizations. She served as a Commissioner on the California Commission on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs. She was initially appointed to the Commission in 2006 and was reappointed in 2010 by the Speaker of the State Assembly. The Commission is charged with advising the Governor and the State Legislature on issues impacting California’s Asian Pacific Islander communities. Nitasha also served on the Board of Directors of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).
Nitasha was featured as an expert in the award-winning documentary Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath regarding hate crimes in the Sikh Community. In May 2011, she received the Asian Pacific Island Heritage Award for Excellence in Civil Rights from the California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus and California State Assembly. Nitasha also received the 2008 Public Interest Award from the South Asian Bar Public Interest Foundation of Southern California for her dedicated commitment to community service and public interest work. Nitasha was awarded the Spirit in Action Award from the Interfaith Councils of the cities of Garden Grove, Stanton, and Westminster in 2006 for her work in raising funds and awareness to aid victims of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and her dedication to public service.
Nitasha received her Juris Doctorate from the University of California, Davis and her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley. Nitasha also received Associates of Art degrees from Orange Coast Community College and Irvine Valley Community College.