preeta bansal

Preeta D. Bansal

Preeta D. Bansal, the former Solicitor General of the State of New York, is a lawyer whose career has spanned government service and private practice. As a current partner at the international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Ms. Bansal heads the appellate litigation group. She regularly represents major Wall Street and corporate clients on significant issues of law before the federal and state appellate courts and the United States Supreme Court. She also maintains a high-profile pro bono practice for public interest clients on novel issues of constitutional law. In addition to the full-time practice of law, Ms. Bansal currently serves as a Commissioner and as Past Chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan independent federal agency to which she was appointed in 2003 by the United States Senate (then-Minority Leadership), and elected Chair by her fellow Commissioners in 2004-2005. She presided over acclaimed Commission studies on human rights guarantees in the constitutions of predominantly Muslim countries and on the expedited removal process for U.S. asylum seekers, and published op-eds on the Iraqi and Afghan constitutions in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Dallas Morning News.

Ms. Bansal served as the Solicitor General of the State of New York during New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s first Term. As the ranking statutory legal officer after the Attorney General, Ms. Bansal oversaw and coordinated the significant legal positions of the 600 lawyers of the Attorney General’s Office in the United States Supreme Court and the state and federal appellate courts. She is widely credited for her critical leadership role in raising the excellence and quality of the New York Attorney General’s office. The New York Law Journal in a 2004 article described her as having provided the intellectual “bedrock” of the legal philosophy of “federalism” used by Eliot Spitzer, and as “instrumental” in the assembly of the quality and well-credentialed legal team that comprised the Spitzer Administration. Mr. Spitzer himself praised “her tireless commitment to excellence, her clear vision,” and her “creative” and “astute” thinking that “always insisted upon intellectual honesty and excellence.” The New York Times in a profile called her a “legal superstar” and a “nimble, unorthodox thinker,” and the New York Law Journal referred to her as “one of the most gifted lawyers of her generation, who combines a brilliant analytical mind with solid, mature judgment.” During each year of her tenure as Solicitor General, she received the “Best United States Supreme Court Brief” award from the National Association of Attorneys General.