MAYER BROWN ASSOCIATE PRIYA DESAI RECEIVES PILI'S 2024 DISTINGUISHED FELLOW ALUMNI AWARD

Mayer Brown associate Priya Desai was honored with the 2024 “Distinguished Fellow Alumni Award” by the Public Interest Law Initiative (PILI) for her outstanding contributions to pro bono and public interest law in Illinois.

A member of Mayer Brown’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice in Chicago, Priya has devoted over 1,000 hours to pro bono work. She has worked on numerous pro bono matters including representing a prisoner in a civil rights case involving failure to protect from threats by other inmates; conducting research on behalf of the Family Defense Center on mental health information and confidentiality in child protection investigations; securing rulings that reunited two Brazilian migrant mothers with their children after they were separated due to the Trump administration’s border policy; filing Freedom of Information Act requests for Muslim Advocates to track law enforcement training by anti-Muslim pressure groups; and handling multiple prisoner civil rights cases alleging inadequate medical attention.

Priya is also involved in several Chicago-area public interest organizations, serving as a member of the CARPLS Professionals Board, Uptown People’s Law Center Board, and as an Alumni Class Representative for PILI.

“It’s been my pleasure to work alongside Priya on a number of matters in the years she has worked at Mayer Brown,” said Mayer Brown counsel Michael Bornhorst. “She is a tremendous attorney, an even better colleague, and a true champion of pro bono public interest work with our Chicago litigation department.”

Founded in 1977, PILI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating a lifelong commitment to public interest law and pro bono service within the Illinois legal community.

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