Community Conversation
with Farooq Mitha
NEHA DEWAN
Neha has long been active in both local and national politics. Most recently, she founded and served as the National Director for South Asians for Biden, an organization dedicated to engaging, educating, and mobilizing the South Asian community to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. In 2016, Neha served as the National Co-Chair for South Asians for Hillary and was appointed by Hillary Clinton to the National AAPI Leadership Council.
Previously, in 2015, Neha was appointed as a guest of honor by the Consulate General of India in New York City where she was selected to speak about gender equality for International Women's Day. During the 2012 presidential campaign, Neha chaired the New York Chapter of South Asians for Obama and also served on the steering committee for Lawyers for Obama in New York. For several years, Neha served as an Officer of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council, an organization affiliated with the National Lawyers Council of the Democratic National Committee and comprised of Democratic lawyers and voting rights activists. Similarly, for many years, Neha served as an advisory board member of New Leaders Council, a national organization focused on training and supporting progressive political entrepreneurs. She has also been active in her local community board and political clubs. Neha served as the President of the South Asian Bar Association of New York in 2012, and now sits on the organization’s Board of Directors.
Mobilizing the South Asian Community & Building Political Power
SONJUI KUMAR
Sonjui L. Kumar is a founding member of KPPB Law, a minority owned and certified law firm, established in Atlanta, Georgia in 2003, with offices in Houston, Virginia and New York. Ms. Kumar is a corporate transactional lawyer with over three decades of experience representing companies from formation to exit. She primarily acts as general counsel to domestic and foreign manufacturing, technology, real-estate and service companies shepherding them through mergers, acquisitions, governance, employment, contractual and other ongoing matters. She focuses primarily on companies that have cross-border operations, representing many Indian companies doing business in the United States, and U.S. companies doing business in India.
Ms. Kumar is a leader in the growing Asian American community in Georgia. Since 2013, Sonjui has been Chair of the Board of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta, an organization dedicated to fostering the social, economic and civil rights of Asian Americans in the Southeast. In that role, she has been part of the organization’s transition from a local non-profit to become part of a national affiliation, and also shepherded AAAJ-Atlanta through a critical change in leadership.
Ms. Kumar is also an active member of the South Asian community in Georgia and nationally. She is a Past President of both the national (SABA-NA) and local (SABA-GA) South Asian Bar Associations and continues to serve on SABA-NA’s National Advisory Council, which she chaired for several years. In 2011, SABA-NA recognized her by awarding her its annual Cornerstone Award. She was also a member of the founding board of the SABA Foundation formed in 2007, of which she is still a Founders Circle and Advisory Council Member. She is a current member and former Chair of the Board of GIACC (The Georgia Indo American Chamber of Commerce). In this position she was a key organizer of the Atlanta Indian Film Festival (AIFF) which was held in 2018 and 2019 before being cancelled for the 2020 year. In addition to the AIFF, she has facilitated delegations from Atlanta to India on behalf of GIACC. Sonjui is also a long time Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), Atlanta Chapter, where she served on its first Board of Directors. She is editor of her firm’s monthly column in the community magazine, Khabar, titled “Business Insights.”
In 2015, Sonjui proposed bringing the “Girls Who Code Program” to Atlanta middle schools, and has since then partnered with Cool Girls Inc., an Atlanta non-profit to do just that. Not being a programmer, she has coordinated computer professionals from IBM and Cox Enterprises, to provide 20 weekly instruction classes to middle school girls in East Atlanta schools. In 2019 Cool Girls recognized her as their Volunteer of the Year. She serves on Cool Girls Advisory Council.
Ms. Kumar is also a member of the Board of the National Association of Women and Minority Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF). Her firm has been a member of NAMWOLF since 2008 when it became the first South Asian owned law firm to be admitted to this prestigious national organization.
Sonjui is also active in the broader legal community. In 2007, she was appointed by the State Bar President as the first South Asian representative to the State Bar’s Board of Governors. After completing here term, she served as chair of the State Bar’s Election Committee and five terms as co-Chair of the State Bar’s Communication Committee. In that role, she and her co-Chair initiated a new public relations campaign for the State Bar which highlights the goods works of Georgia lawyers with the tag line, “Who Needs Lawyers? We Do.”
Attorney Kumar is a frequent speaker on issues relating to diversity and inclusion, women and minorities in the profession, international transactions, corporate governance, law firm practice and business development.
Ms. Kumar was part of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2014 and now serves on its Board of Trustees. She lives with her husband in Brookhaven, Georgia and has two adult daughters who are contributing to the world in amazing ways.