Biden Nominates Indian American Sopen B. Shah to be U.S. Attorney for Western District of Wisconsin
- If confirmed, she would be the only second woman to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Madison.
President Joe Biden has nominated Sopen B. Shah to be United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. She would succeed Scott Blader, a Trump appointee, who resigned in 2021. Longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim O’Shea is currently in charge of the office temporarily.
If confirmed, Shah would be the only second woman to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Madison.
Shah was among six nominees announced on June 6 as U.S. attorneys in the country. They were chosen “for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice,” a White House statement said.
Currently a counsel at Perkins Coie LLP where she has practiced since 2019, she is an award-winning brief writer and experienced oral advocate. She also handles high-stakes litigation in trial courts, including a voting rights case in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin and a multimillion-dollar shareholder-dispute trial in Dane County Circuit Court, according to her Perkins Coie LLP profile.
Shah was previously a Deputy Solicitor General of Wisconsin from 2017 to 2019. She served as a law clerk for Judge Debra Ann Livingston on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Amul R. Thapar on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2015 and A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 2008.