Indian-American Sikh woman elected to key Republican position

Washington, May 3

An Indian-American woman Sikh lawyer from California has been elected to a key position in the Republican Party at the national level.

Chandigarh-born Harmeet Kaur Dhillon, 47, was elected as the newest national committee member of the Republican National Committee on Sunday by thousand plus votes in attendance at the California Republican Party convention. She was earlier the vice chairman of the California Republican Party.

She was the first woman elected to this position of vice chair of the California Republican Party.

A nationally-recognised trial lawyer, Dhillon was born in India, but raised in rural North Carolina after her Sikh parents moved to the US.

"A little girl from Chandigarh, India, the Bronx, and Smithfield, North Carolina back in the day, to being one of California's three votes on the RNC. For the next four years starting in late July, I will help shape the policies of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman, the party of liberty and opportunity," Dhillon said after her election.

Following her clerkship with Paul V Niemeyer of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Dhillon's practice in New York, London, and the San Francisco Bay Area has focused on federal and state commercial litigation and arbitration, with a particular emphasis on unfair competition/trade secret misappropriation, intellectual property (including trademark litigation and internet torts), complex contractual disputes, and First Amendment litigation.

Based in San Francisco, Dhillon among other things also sat on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union, and once made a financial contribution to Kamala Harris' campaign for local office — Harris who is a US Senate hopeful and rising star in Democratic politics. — PTI