Shaleen Shanbhag
Shaleen Shanbhag is Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the UC Irvine School of Law. Ms. Shanbhag brings over a decade of experience in civil rights litigation and advocacy to the Center.
Ms. Shanbhag graduated from UC Irvine School of Law in 2014 as a member of the school’s third incoming class. While a law student, Ms. Shanbhag was elected to the Student Bar Association, served as the Chapter Director of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), and was a member of the UC Irvine Law Review. She was also an International Justice Clinic student, where she worked on issues of transitional justice and government accountability for former political prisoners in Myanmar.
Ms. Shanbhag has extensive experience litigating cases involving police excessive force, prisoners’ rights, unlawful search and seizure, free speech, and disability rights. Ms. Shanbhag’s notable cases include Edmo v. Idaho Department of Correction, the first appellate decision ordering a state to provide gender confirmation surgery to a prisoner; Fazaga v. FBI, which challenged the government’s targeted surveillance of Muslim Americans based on their faith; and Penny v. City of Los Angeles, where she obtained a summary judgment liability finding against an LAPD officer who shot an unhoused man experiencing a mental health crisis. She has represented protesters and journalists whose constitutional rights were violated by police during the 2020 George Floyd protests, 2017 anti-Trump protests, and Echo Park Lake protests.
Ms. Shanbhag has successfully tried numerous cases to verdict, including in a Monterey County Jail wrongful death lawsuit (Pajas v. County of Monterey), and a fatal LAPD shooting case (Tchayou v. City of Los Angeles). She has also successfully argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ms. Shanbhag spent most of her legal career at the renowned civil rights and employment firm, Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai LLP. She also worked at UCLA School of Law’s Human Rights Litigation Clinic and Miracle Mile Law Group, a plaintiff-side employment firm. Ms. Shanbhag began her legal career at the ACLU of Southern California followed by a federal district court clerkship. Ms. Shanbhag received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley.