We are pleased to announce that Ayesha N. Khan has joined the firm as a Partner to launch our Appellate & Critical Motions practice group.
Ayesha N. Khan has over two decades of experience litigating high-stakes appeals in state and federal courts nationwide. She has represented clients before the United States Supreme Court, every federal circuit, federal trial-level courts, state trial and appellate courts, the American Arbitration Association, and the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal. Her clients have ranged from private individuals to commercial entities, school districts to municipalities, and state governments to the United States.
Ms. Khan’s cases have involved legal questions arising under the First Amendment and other federal constitutional provisions, state and federal statutes regulating education, employment, and public funding, state and federal criminal statutes, and contracts, torts, family law, and other aspects of common-law jurisprudence. She has also authored dozens of friend-of-the-court briefs on a diverse array of issues for state and federal appellate courts nationwide.
Ms. Khan will spearhead the firm’s Appellate & Critical Motions practice group, which will represent clients in state and federal appellate matters spanning the firm’s practice areas. In addition to handling discretionary-review and merits briefing, as well as oral argument, Ms. Khan will prepare amicus curiae briefs addressing issues of substantial concern to clients. She will also work closely with trial counsel from other firms to prepare dispositive motions and other critical trial-court filings and to ensure that issues are preserved for appeal.
Ms. Khan previously served as a Deputy Chief in the Appellate Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she represented the United States in state and federal appellate courts. Before that, she served as the Legal Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, overseeing a team of litigators handling trial and appellate litigation in state and federal courts nationwide. Ms. Khan has also served as a trial and appellate litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Covington & Burling LLP.
Ms. Khan has handled many high-profile cases that have garnered extensive media coverage and she has been a frequent contributor to the news media regarding legal issues. She has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Mathews, Fox TV’s O’Reilly Factor, and CNN’s Prime News and The World Today; she has been interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and countless other radio programs; and she has been quoted in the Washington Post, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Tribune, and scores of other newspapers.
Ms. Khan received her J.D. from Berkeley Law, where she graduated Order of the Coif and served on the California Law Review. After law school, she clerked on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She earned her A.B. with Highest Distinction from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, every federal circuit, and the appellate courts of Washington, DC, Maryland, and California.
