Elora Mukherjee joined the firm in 2007. She previously served as the Marvin M. Karpatkin Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union. There, Ms. Mukherjee filed suit on behalf of 26 immigrant children detained under prison-like conditions at the T. Don Hutto detention center in Taylor, Texas. The suit challenged requirements that the children dress in prison garb, receive only one hour of recreation per day, and be detained in open-toilet cells for up to 12 hours each day without access to food or toys. The suit further challenged the facility’s inadequate medical, dental, and mental health treatment, denial of meaningful educational opportunities, and disciplinary practices that threatened children with separation from their parents. A landmark settlement announced in August 2007 greatly improved conditions at the facility and secured the release of all 26 children and their parents.

At the ACLU, Ms. Mukherjee also authored a report, Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools. The report, described by Bob Herbert of The New York Times as “a must-read for anyone interested in the reality of public school life in New York,” helped prompt City Council hearings on police misconduct in schools. In addition, Ms. Mukherjee helped negotiate an agreement with the State of Connecticut designed to reduce racial and ethnic isolation in Hartford-region public schools, and worked on other education, racial profiling, and free speech issues. Prior to joining the ACLU, Ms. Mukherjee clerked for the Honorable Jan E. DuBois of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

During law school, Ms. Mukherjee represented asylum seekers and served as a director of the Immigration Clinic of the Jermone N. Frank Legal Services Organization; assisted the Connecticut Public Defender Capital Defense Unit on the sentencing phase of a death penalty case; and worked on domestic and international human rights issues at the Allard J. Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic. She also served as a contracts teaching assistant for Prof. Stephen Carter, a teaching fellow for an international human rights course at Yale College, and a research assistant for Dean Harold Koh and Prof. Owen Fiss. Ms. Mukherjee spent summers at the ACLU, Human Rights First, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.

Education
Yale Law School, J.D., 2005; Charles G. Albom Prize for excellence in judicial and administrative appellate advocacy; Yale Law Journal, Notes Development Editor; Yale Journal of International Law, Articles Editor; Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal, Articles Editor.

Rutgers University, B.A., Highest Honors, 2002; Phi Beta Kappa.

Admissions
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (pending).

U.S. District Court, Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, District of New Jersey (pending); New York; New Jersey.

Memberships
Director and Founding Member of the Refugee Reunification Project Fund, an organization that reunites refugee families by helping the spouses and children of asylees relocate to the United States.

Publications
ACLU – NYCLU, Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools, March 2007.

Human Rights First, “The United States and International Human Rights,” in Assessing the New Normal: Liberty and Security for the Post-September 11 United States, September 2003.

Book Review, Ethnic Conflict & Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, by Ashutosh Varshney, in The Yale Journal of International Law, Summer 2003.