Preeta D. Bansal is a leading United States lawyer whose career has spanned government service and private practice. A partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, she is a member and past chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and former Solicitor General of the State of New York during Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's first Term. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates (a. ... The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a US government agency created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments... The Solicitor General is a cabinet position in several countries, dealing with legal affairs. ... Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is the current New York State Attorney General and the Governor-elect of New York. ...

Bansal was raised in Lincoln, Nebraska as a child. She received an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1986 and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1989. She served as Supervising Editor of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from Harvard Law School, she clerked for Chief Judge James L. Oakes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1989 to 1990 and for United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens from 1990 to 1991. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... Harvard Law School (HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ... The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... John Paul Stevens (born April 20, 1920) is an American jurist, and the senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ...

Following private practice in Washington, D.C., Bansal worked in the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 1996 as a Counselor in the U.S. Department of Justice and as a White House Special Counsel. At the Justice Department, she assisted Joel Klein, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, on U.S. v. Microsoft and other matters. In the White House Counsel's office, her duties incluided vetting and guiding President Clinton's Supreme Court and judicial nominees through the Senate confirmation process. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. ... The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is a Cabinet department in the United States government designed to enforce the law and defend the interests of the United States according to the law and to ensure fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans. ... Joel Klein is Chancellor of the New York City public school system, the largest system in the United States with over 1. ... United States v. ...

In 1999, newly elected New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recruited her to serve in his office as Solicitor General of the State of New York, the statutory ranking officer after the Attorney General. In that capacity, she was in charge of the office's appellate activities, supervising 45 lawyers in the Solicitor General's Office who filed 40 to 50 appellate briefs each week, and she also helped manage the significant legal positions and amicus strategy of the 600 lawyers in the Attorney General’s Office. Bansal won the “Best United States Supreme Court Brief” award from the National Association of Attorneys General during every year that she served as New York Solicitor General, and is widely credited with initiating significant managerial reforms to enhance the transparency and excellence of the Solicitor General's Office and with providing the intellectual underpinning of "federalism" that later animated Attorney General Spitzer's active state enforcement agenda. Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is the current New York State Attorney General and the Governor-elect of New York. ... The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) is an organization in the United States of U.S. state Attorneys General which, according to the organization itself, aims to foster interstate cooperation on legal and law enforcement issues, to conduct policy research and analysis of issues, and facilitate communication between the...

Bansal returned to Nebraska and taught Constitutional Law, Federalism, and a seminar on "Courts, Politics and Legal/Social Change: Evaluating the Limits and Successes of Rights-Based Approaches" as a Visiting Professor at the University of Nebraska Law School from 2002-2003. She was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2003. Seal of the University of Nebraska The University of Nebraska is one of two public university systems in the state of Nebraska, USA. The system has four universities and a technical college: University of Nebraska-Lincoln University of Nebraska at Omaha University of Nebraska at Kearney University of Nebraska Medical... John F. Kennedy School of Government The John F. Kennedy School of Government is a public policy school and one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. ...

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle chose Bansal for the bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in 2003, at which time she also rejoined private law practice in New York at Skadden, Arps. The USCIRF investigates freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad and recommends countries for designation as Country of Particular Concern by the United States Secretary of State. Her fellow comissioners later chose her as Chair, and she has been reappointed twice to the USCIRF by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. As Chair of the USCIRF from 2004-2005, she presided over nationally and internationally acclaimed Commission studies on human rights guarantees in the national constitutions of predominantly Muslim countries, and on the expedited removal process for U.S. asylum seekers. Thomas Andrew Daschle (born December 9, 1947), known as Tom Daschle, was a U.S. Senator from South Dakota and the Senate Majority Leader. ... The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a US government agency created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments... Country of Particular Concern is a designation by the United States Secretary of State (under authority delegated by the President) of a nation guilty of particularly severe violations of religious freedom under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998 (H.R. 2431) and its amendment of 1999 (Public Law... Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ... Harry Mason Reid (born December 2, 1939) is the senior United States Senator from Nevada and a member of the Democratic Party, for which he serves as Senate Minority Leader. ...

As a current partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Bansal leads the firm's appellate litigation and complex legal issues practice. In addition to her service on USCIRF, she also serves as a Commissioner on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's bipartisan Election Modernization Task Force; a Trustee of the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; an Advisory Board Member of the Clinton Global Initiative; a member of the Board of Directors of the National Women's Law Center; and a Board Member of the New York City Bar Justice Center. She co-chairs the Appellate Committee of the Commercial and Federal Litigation of the New York State Bar Association. In 2006, she received the "Woman of Power and Influence Award" from the National Organization of Women at that organization's fortieth anniversary dinner. In November 2006, she was named to the gubernatorial transition team for New York Governor-Elect Eliot Spitzer and as a co-chair of the transition team of New York Attorney General-Elect Andrew Cuomo. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates (a. ... Michael Rubens Mike Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942) is a prominent American businessman, the founder of Bloomberg L.P., and the current Mayor of the City of New York. ... The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, often simply The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights or Lawyers Committee is a civil rights organization that was founded in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy. ... The Clinton Global Initiative is a project of the non-profit William J. Clinton Foundation and was inaugurated on 15 September 2005 in New York, United States, under the chairmanship of former president Bill Clinton. ... Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is the current New York State Attorney General and the Governor-elect of New York. ... Andrew Mark Cuomo (born December 6, 1957, in New York City) is the New York State Attorney General-elect. ...

In a "Public Lives" profile of her in 1999, the New York Times referred to her as a "legal superstar" and a "nimble, unorthodox thinker interested in art and literature" who "was attracted to the law's blend of the philosophical and pragmatic." She has appeared as a commentator on legal issues and U.S. Supreme Court matters on CNN, C-SPAN and PBS news programs. The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

Sources

Skadden website biography on Preeta Bansal

USCIRF biography of Preeta Bansal

NYT "Public Lives" Profile on Preeta Bansal

Spitzer Press Release on Preeta Bansal

Clinton Global Initiative