Priti Patel graduated with a B.A. in history from Columbia University in 1997 and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2002. Before joining SALC, she was an attorney in the Law and Security Program at Human Rights First. In that capacity, she led field missions to Afghanistan, monitored military commission trials at Guantanamo Bay, and worked on amicus briefs to the US Supreme Court. She also served as a law clerk to then Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson and Justice Catherine O’Regan at the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 2002 to 2003 and was a Fulbright scholar in Durban, South Africa in 1998. Since 2007, she has been involved in numerous cases in southern Africa strengthening the rights of people living with and affected by HIV.
