The brother of Ninth Circuit Judge Roopali Desai, Phoenix based attorney Sharad Desai is vying to become the first Indian American judge on the federal district court bench in Arizona.
Background
Born to an Indian immigrant family in Phoenix, Desai received a joint B.S. and B.A. from the University of Arizona in 2003 and then a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2006. Desai then returned to Arizona to clerk for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Rebecca White Berch.
After his clerkship, Desai joined Osborn Maledon, P.A. in Phoenix. He became a Member with the firm in 2012. In 2015, he shifted to Honeywell International Inc., a business conglomerate working in aerospace and technology, among other areas, where he serves as Vice President and General Counsel.
History of the Seat
Desai has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, to a seat to be vacated on October 21, 2024, when Judge G. Murray Snow takes senior status.
Legal Experience
After his clerkship, Desai worked in litigation at Osborn Maledon, P.A. While at the firm, Desai represented a class of retired Arizona judges in a class action suit against a change in the calculations of pension benefit increases for judges. See Fields v. Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan, 320 P.3d 1160 (Ariz. 2014). Desai secured a victory for the class in trial court, which was affirmed by the Arizona Supreme Court. See id.
While at the firm, Desai was appointed by the Arizona District Court to represent a class of pretrial detainees in litigation by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office seeking to terminate consent agreements overseeing conditions in their jails. See Graves v. Arpaio, 48 F. Supp. 3d 1318 (D. Ariz. 2014). Desai maintained his representation of the class until he left the firm in 2015.
On the pro bono side, Desai represented a Nevada prisoner seeking recovery for costs from litigation challenging a disciplinary hearing against him. As part of his representation, Desai briefed and argued the appeal before the Ninth Circuit. See Jones v. McDaniel, 607 F. App’x 710 (9th Cir. 2015).
For the last nine years at Honeywell International Inc., Desai has served as a Counsel, advising various divisions of the company, and overseeing litigation in general. However, he has not appeared in court during this time. Nonetheless, Desai has supervised litigation, including in a $38 million product liability suit involving a Honeywell autopilot on an aircraft, which ended in a jury verdict in Honeywell’s favor after a two week trial. See Egbers v. Honeywell, Int’l, Cook County Circuit Ct. Case No. 06 L 6992 (Ill. 2016).
Overall Assessment
Perhaps more than any other Senator, Senator Kirsten Synema has been able to grease the wheels for nominees from her state. The three nominees to Arizona courts from the Biden Administration have each drawn more than 60 senators in support, a remarkable feat, given that only around 20% of the Administration’s judicial nominees have drawn that level of support.
While Desai is unlikely to get the same level of support, given the fact that his nomination will almost certainly be considered in the lame duck session, it is possible that Sinema will be able to work her magic a fourth time and ensure that Desai joins the bench in due course.
The Vetting Room 
@Gavi & Frank,
Do I think Collins will be an easy out?
No but even though she won in 2020 by eight points, that was a 17 point drop from 2014 and was her lowest margin of victory yet.
The idea her numbers are going to get better as the country gets more polarized is a joke and while she’ll start out as a slight favorite, she is by no means a lock to win reelection, especially if Trump does even half of the garbage he promises to do.
As others have found out, you can only outrun your party on a national level so many times before it comes for you.
So while she’s in the driver’s seat, she’s by no means a lock and folks aren’t deluded for saying so.
As to your other point, I don’t recall a lot of us here thinking Kamala had a lock to win, especially given her late entry into the race.
Also, I had the fear in the back of my mind that some of the far left/progressive stances on certain issues that she took in the 2020 primary would come back to bite her and they did.
Like it or not, this country isn’t as far left as folks want it to be and it never will be.
I was hoping for a Kamala win in November but I wasn’t shocked in the least that she lost, nor that many minority groups swung to the right.
Criminal justice reform bit us in the butt and the fact folks with Mangi’s nomination didn’t think a couple of the groups he belonged to weren’t an issue shows that the lecture I and others have gotten about living in a bubble or dream world should be directed elsewhere.
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Regarding, it’s worth pointing out that Maine has ranked choice voting, but the runoff calculations were never done because she got an outright majority. Had they run those, her margin likely would have narrowed to 53-47 or so.
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Rest in peace President Carter. You were the president when I was born & I admire him fondly
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On the subject of the Judges bill, I wonder if it gets considered again next Congress. It passed the Senate on unanimous consent this year, but I wonder if any Senate Democrat would object to UC passage and force them to burn a week of floor time to pass it (or if there would still even be 60 votes to pass it outright, you’d only need 7 Democratic Senators to get to 60). Democratic members of Congress tend to not follow orders from their President/de facto party leader the same way Republicans do (Trump could be on his dying breath on a hospital bed and Congressional Republicans would still react to his stances on anything moving through Congress), so I doubt Senate Democrats would stand by Biden’s veto as a rationale for opposing the bill.
As for potential Trump SCOTUS picks, I’d think James Ho would be the frontrunner. Anybody he nominates will be easily confirmed, but I’d think Ho would probably have the most contentious hearing (apart from being rabidly partisan, his temperament would be the easiest point of attack. I think Senate Democrats could easily hammer him on the abortion pill ruling, if I recall, after SCOTUS initially kicked the case back to the 5th Circuit in 2023-ish, Ho had a meltdown and blew up in front of the plaintiffs).
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I don’t think it’s going to happen the two justices most likely to retire have indicated they are not going anywhere anytime soon.
Having said that , I think who gets replaced by whom depends on which justice retires.
If it is Alito then I think it would be Mike Lee. If it’s Thomas it would most certainly be Ho.
I think there is a trend of justices stepping down as long as a former clerk from their chambers is selected .
We have to get control of the Senate to stop this from happening .There’s no way Thomas and Alito can last beyond a two term Democrat as President.
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The buzz for Padilla to run for Governor isn’t going away.
https://apple.news/A4drsdGAyRLmamloasL_K3A
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There was also a lot of buzz about The New York Giants being a sneaky good team this season. Then they played their first game yesterday & that all went away. Same thing will happen once Padilla takes his name out the hat… Lol
Speaking of taking their name out the hat, Governor Wes Moore has taken his name out of the hat for a presidential run in 2028. That’s sad because he would have been a really good candidate.
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Padilla is in the wrong job. His experience is suited for Sacramento not DC.
The opposite is true for Katie Porter. She’s not well known in the state capital.
I think she would be a better Senator than Governor. But, like I said earlier Ro Khanna has been running for Senate for the past 3 years.
If you live in or near his district then you can clearly see this. The writing is on the wall : Padilla will be running for Governor.
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