When Judge Sabita Singh recently presided over a case tried by public defender Radha Natarajan, one of a small number of South Asian litigators in Massachusetts, Singh couldn’t help but feel the need to step in and help the attorney when law enforcement officials she was questioning became hostile.
“Look at [Natarajan], she’s tiny, and these [witnesses] were these big, broad guys who became borderline hostile, borderline disrespectful. And part of me wanted to step in and help her,” said Singh, who added that seeing powerful South Asian lawyers practicing in her courtroom is “an incredible experience.”
But Singh restrained herself. “I thought, what would that do to her credibility?” she said. “And so I didn’t do anything.”
Both Singh and Natarajan participated in the panel discussion, “South Asian Lawyers in the Public Eye,” as part of the 17th annual Network of Indian Professionals, or NetIP, conference, a national event held Aug. 29-31 at the Renaissance Waterfront Hotel in Boston. Other panelists included: Manisha Bhatt, senior attorney for Greater Boston Legal Services; Tejal Mehta, assistant district attorney at the Middlesex County district attorney’s office; and Anuradha Yadav, a corporate attorney based in Atlanta.
Panelists agreed that South Asians are not well represented in the American legal community. “A lot of times when I walk into court, the first thing they ask me is if I’m the interpreter,” Natarajan said.
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