NEW YORK (TIP): Indian American lawyer Sanket Bulsara, who recently served as acting general counsel to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has been appointed as a magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York and is the first South Asian American to serve on the bench in the Second Circuit.

“We are thrilled to welcome Judge Bulsara into the Eastern District family,” Chief Judge Dora Irizarry said. “Judge Bulsara was chosen by the Board of Judges from among five highly qualified and stellar candidates recommended by the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Committee composed of members of the bar and citizens of the Eastern District.”

Judge Bulsara received an A.B. degree magna cum laude in 1998 from Harvard College and a J.D. degree cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2002.  He is a graduate of Edgemont High School.

Upon graduating from law school, Judge Bulsara was a law clerk to Judge John G. Koeltl of the Southern District of New York.  Thereafter, he was an associate at Munger Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in New York, where he worked from 2005 to 2015, including as a partner of the firm.  In 2015, he became the Deputy General Counsel for Appellate Litigation, Adjudication, and Enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC.

As the Acting General Counsel of the SEC, he served as the agency’s chief legal officer.  He also oversaw the agency’s appellate, adjudication and enforcement related legal policy functions.  Bulsara also served as Special Kings County Assistant District Attorney while he was at Wilmer Hale and successfully tried felony and misdemeanor cases.

Bulsara received several awards related to his numerous pro bono matters that have included working on prisoner rights cases and a Hague Convention child abduction matter.