Profiles
Core Members:
(listed in alphabetical order)
AARTI MUNDKUR : Aarti has an LLB from Bangalore University (2008) and an M.A. in Social Work Department of Urban and Rural Community Development. She has been with the organization since May, 2001. Her primary area of interest is issues related to urban poor and gender litigation. Email: aarti@altlawforum.org
ANUJA MIRCHANDANEY : Anuja a graduate from NLS started volunteering with ALF in November, 2001. She now works formally with the organization. Prior to this she worked with law practices in Bangalore and Delhi. She has provided assistance in litigation and alternative dispute resolution and also involved in rights awareness programmes that ALF has been asked to do. Her primary interest is in legal writing, specifically on socio-legal issues. Email: anuja@altlawforum.org
ARVIND NARRAIN : A founder member of ALF, Arvind has done a bachelor_ s in law from NLSIU followed by a masters in the University of Warwick on a Chevening scholarships. After two years spent at the NLSIU Centre for the Child and the Law where he was actively involved in working on child rights and juvenile justice. He also taught courses at the NLSIU on human rights law and ideology, ethnic conflict, law; poverty and development. Arvind now works full time at ALF dividing his time between litigation on the criminal side and research and advocacy on sexuality and minority related issues. Email: arvind@altlawforum.org
CLIFTON D' ROZARIO : Clifton is a civil enginner by training. His areas of interest include caste politics, land conflicts and the city and grasroots democracy. Clifton is also involved with working with a number of groups in the informal sector. Email: clifton@altlawforum.org
JITI NICHANI: Jiti graduated with a Political Science (Hons.) from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi, and went on to further complete a LLB degree from the University of Warwick, England. Her focus areas are gender and the law, mechanics of juvenile justice, environment and everyday practice of intellectual property. Alongside this, she is also interested in mediation, dispute resolution and the politics of urban planning. Email: jiti@altlawforum.org
LAWRENCE LIANG : Lawrence, a graduate form National Law School subsequently pursued his Masters degree in Warwick, England on a Chevening Scholarship. His key areas of interest are law, technology and culture, the politics of copyright and he has been working closely with Sarai, New Delhi on a joint research project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. A keen follower of the open source movement in software, Lawrence has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas into the cultural domain. Email: lawrence@altlawforum.org
MANORANJINI THOMAS KUNDAL: Manoranjini graduated BA LLB from Gulbarga university, Karnakata and joined ALF in May 2005. She works with the litigation team and works on issues relating to children specially research on chlid marriage and child marriage related matters,supporting sex workers rights and other development issues, working to provide legal support to the powrakarmika union and is also keenly interested in Dalit issues. Email:
manoranjani@altlawforum.org
MAITREYI KRISHNAN: Maitreyi graduated from ILS Law College, Pune and works with the litigation team at ALF. She is interested in understanding labour conditions, particularly in the unorganized sector and looks to provide legal support to the Domestic Workers Union and Powrakarmika's Union. Email: maitreyi@altlawforum.org
MAYUR SURESH: Mayur graduated from the National Law School, Bangalore and has a Master’s degree from the Columbia Law School, New York. He has worked as a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Casteism, Communalism and the Law at the National Law School, Sarai/Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, and the Indian Security Workers Organising Council. His present work is in the areas of sexuality, copyright, media law and censorship, and judicial discourse around the idea of the emergency. Email:mayur@altlawforum.org
NAMITA MALHOTRA: Namita, a graduate of the National Law School has a keen interest in pushing the relationship between law and media at ALF. She has been a part of a number of experiments which tries to look at the critical and aesthetic possibilities between law and new media. Email:namita@altlawforum.org
PONNI ARASU: Ponni has an MA in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University. After working with collectives and other organisations in Delhi focusing mainly on issues relating to sexuality, she joined ALF in July 2007. She is pursuing her LLB at Seshadripuram Law College. Her primary areas of interest are women and the law, advocacy around issues of gender and sexuality and issues of labour as well as unionisation. Email: ponni@altlawforum.org
PRASHANT IYENGAR: Prashant has graduated from the National Academy of Legal and Advanced Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad. Prashant is a Technology/IP lawyer, academic and a new media activist. He runs a free database of Indian Supreme Court cases, and a free Daily Legal Newsletter. He has also previously (2006-07) been an International Policy Fellow with the Open Society Institute. Email: prashant@altlawforum.org
SIDDHARTH NARRAIN: Siddharth has graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. His areas of interest include issues related to gender and sexuality, media laws and censorship, and the politics of the judiciary. He has worked as a journalist for Frontline Magazine and The Hindu newspaper in New Delhi. Email: sid@altlawforum.org
SOWMYA BHAT: Sowmya holds a Bachelors Degree in Law from Mangalore University, Karnataka and LL.M from NLSIU, Bangalore. A Member of the Legal Counseling and Litigation Team of the ALF, Sowmya has a keen interest in kannada literature. Email:sowmya@altlawforum.org
USHA R: Usha holds diploma in Library Science from SJP Women's Polytechnic, Bangalore. She is in charge of the ALF library. Email: usha@altlawforum.org
Extended Core Members:
ANUROOPA GILIYAL : finished her law from Vivekananda Law College, Puttur.She worked at the Institute of Law, Ethics and Medicine (TILEM) at the National Law School for an year. She worked at ALF from 2001 to 2005, taking over and giving momentum to the disability cell run at the Commissioner for Disability Office. With her ability to communicate in sign language has enabled her to communicate better with clients, she remains a lawyer with a difference as far as people with disabilities are concerned. At Present she is doing reasearch on the issue of Disabilities.
CHITRA BALAKRISHNAN : An integral part of ALF during its formative years, Chitra a BA LLB saw ALF through its initial rough period. At the time along with Roopa, they manages every thing from training and advocacy to litigation.She is an experienced trainer, and has worked in the past in several parts of Rural Karnataka. She has recently completed a year long applied research study on community dispute resolution relating to women as a WISCOMP Scholar of Peace.
MATHEW JOHN : (BA. LLB. Hons.): is currently doing his LLM at the University of Warwick in Law and Development. Mathew was the chief architect of the Alternative Lawyering Conference organised by ALF in September 2001. His main interest lies in the area of legal histories.
MIRIAM CHINNAPPA : Miriam, a graduate of the University Law College Bangalore, is a Chevening Scholar having done her LLM in human rights from the university of Nottingham, England. She has considerable international human rights work exposure, having worked in the protection unit in UNHCR, Benelux and as Legal Officer at 'Medicines Sans Frontiers' (Afghanistan). Miriam worked with ALF for more then one year, on litigation, outreach, training and advocacy. She has recently gone back to Belgium.
ROOPA M : (BA. LLB Hons) along with Chitra were the first full time working members of the ALF collective. Roopa is currently at NYU doing her LLM in Public Interest Lawyering. Apart from having worked with the National Dairy Development Board, Anand in the legal department, Roopa has worked in the areas of both civil and human rights practise as well as an independent researcher on issues of child sexual abuse and local governance. Her main interests lie in the area of labour, gender and land rights.
SANJAY BAVIKATTE : (BA. LLB. Hons, LLM) is currently teaching law at the University of Georgetown in Guyana. He also has an LLM from the University of Warwick in Law and Development.While at ALF, Sanjay explored alternate livelihood opportunities with women in the sex trade and helped start a legal aid cell for people with disabilities.
SARASU ESTHER THOMAS : She is a graduate and post graduate from National Law School who subsequently started teaching Family Law and Corporate Law at NLS.She is also an integral part of the Centre of Women and Law at NLS.Sarasu has been an active member ever since the inception of ALF. She has been of immense help especially in training and clarifying various concepts relating to personal laws and gender laws.
VISHWAS DEVAIAH: Vishwas , a graduate from the University law College went on to complete his Masters in law from the University of Warwick. Vishwas works on the politcs of intellectual property , especially the Patents Regime and its impact on public health in developing countries.
(listed in alphabetical order)
AARTI MUNDKUR : Aarti has an LLB from Bangalore University (2008) and an M.A. in Social Work Department of Urban and Rural Community Development. She has been with the organization since May, 2001. Her primary area of interest is issues related to urban poor and gender litigation. Email: aarti@altlawforum.org
ANUJA MIRCHANDANEY : Anuja a graduate from NLS started volunteering with ALF in November, 2001. She now works formally with the organization. Prior to this she worked with law practices in Bangalore and Delhi. She has provided assistance in litigation and alternative dispute resolution and also involved in rights awareness programmes that ALF has been asked to do. Her primary interest is in legal writing, specifically on socio-legal issues. Email: anuja@altlawforum.org
ARVIND NARRAIN : A founder member of ALF, Arvind has done a bachelor_ s in law from NLSIU followed by a masters in the University of Warwick on a Chevening scholarships. After two years spent at the NLSIU Centre for the Child and the Law where he was actively involved in working on child rights and juvenile justice. He also taught courses at the NLSIU on human rights law and ideology, ethnic conflict, law; poverty and development. Arvind now works full time at ALF dividing his time between litigation on the criminal side and research and advocacy on sexuality and minority related issues. Email: arvind@altlawforum.org
CLIFTON D' ROZARIO : Clifton is a civil enginner by training. His areas of interest include caste politics, land conflicts and the city and grasroots democracy. Clifton is also involved with working with a number of groups in the informal sector. Email: clifton@altlawforum.org
JITI NICHANI: Jiti graduated with a Political Science (Hons.) from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi, and went on to further complete a LLB degree from the University of Warwick, England. Her focus areas are gender and the law, mechanics of juvenile justice, environment and everyday practice of intellectual property. Alongside this, she is also interested in mediation, dispute resolution and the politics of urban planning. Email: jiti@altlawforum.org
LAWRENCE LIANG : Lawrence, a graduate form National Law School subsequently pursued his Masters degree in Warwick, England on a Chevening Scholarship. His key areas of interest are law, technology and culture, the politics of copyright and he has been working closely with Sarai, New Delhi on a joint research project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. A keen follower of the open source movement in software, Lawrence has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas into the cultural domain. Email: lawrence@altlawforum.org
MANORANJINI THOMAS KUNDAL: Manoranjini graduated BA LLB from Gulbarga university, Karnakata and joined ALF in May 2005. She works with the litigation team and works on issues relating to children specially research on chlid marriage and child marriage related matters,supporting sex workers rights and other development issues, working to provide legal support to the powrakarmika union and is also keenly interested in Dalit issues. Email:
manoranjani@altlawforum.org
MAITREYI KRISHNAN: Maitreyi graduated from ILS Law College, Pune and works with the litigation team at ALF. She is interested in understanding labour conditions, particularly in the unorganized sector and looks to provide legal support to the Domestic Workers Union and Powrakarmika's Union. Email: maitreyi@altlawforum.org
MAYUR SURESH: Mayur graduated from the National Law School, Bangalore and has a Master’s degree from the Columbia Law School, New York. He has worked as a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Casteism, Communalism and the Law at the National Law School, Sarai/Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, and the Indian Security Workers Organising Council. His present work is in the areas of sexuality, copyright, media law and censorship, and judicial discourse around the idea of the emergency. Email:mayur@altlawforum.org
NAMITA MALHOTRA: Namita, a graduate of the National Law School has a keen interest in pushing the relationship between law and media at ALF. She has been a part of a number of experiments which tries to look at the critical and aesthetic possibilities between law and new media. Email:namita@altlawforum.org
PONNI ARASU: Ponni has an MA in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University. After working with collectives and other organisations in Delhi focusing mainly on issues relating to sexuality, she joined ALF in July 2007. She is pursuing her LLB at Seshadripuram Law College. Her primary areas of interest are women and the law, advocacy around issues of gender and sexuality and issues of labour as well as unionisation. Email: ponni@altlawforum.org
PRASHANT IYENGAR: Prashant has graduated from the National Academy of Legal and Advanced Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad. Prashant is a Technology/IP lawyer, academic and a new media activist. He runs a free database of Indian Supreme Court cases, and a free Daily Legal Newsletter. He has also previously (2006-07) been an International Policy Fellow with the Open Society Institute. Email: prashant@altlawforum.org
SIDDHARTH NARRAIN: Siddharth has graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. His areas of interest include issues related to gender and sexuality, media laws and censorship, and the politics of the judiciary. He has worked as a journalist for Frontline Magazine and The Hindu newspaper in New Delhi. Email: sid@altlawforum.org
SOWMYA BHAT: Sowmya holds a Bachelors Degree in Law from Mangalore University, Karnataka and LL.M from NLSIU, Bangalore. A Member of the Legal Counseling and Litigation Team of the ALF, Sowmya has a keen interest in kannada literature. Email:sowmya@altlawforum.org
USHA R: Usha holds diploma in Library Science from SJP Women's Polytechnic, Bangalore. She is in charge of the ALF library. Email: usha@altlawforum.org
Extended Core Members:
ANUROOPA GILIYAL : finished her law from Vivekananda Law College, Puttur.She worked at the Institute of Law, Ethics and Medicine (TILEM) at the National Law School for an year. She worked at ALF from 2001 to 2005, taking over and giving momentum to the disability cell run at the Commissioner for Disability Office. With her ability to communicate in sign language has enabled her to communicate better with clients, she remains a lawyer with a difference as far as people with disabilities are concerned. At Present she is doing reasearch on the issue of Disabilities.
CHITRA BALAKRISHNAN : An integral part of ALF during its formative years, Chitra a BA LLB saw ALF through its initial rough period. At the time along with Roopa, they manages every thing from training and advocacy to litigation.She is an experienced trainer, and has worked in the past in several parts of Rural Karnataka. She has recently completed a year long applied research study on community dispute resolution relating to women as a WISCOMP Scholar of Peace.
MATHEW JOHN : (BA. LLB. Hons.): is currently doing his LLM at the University of Warwick in Law and Development. Mathew was the chief architect of the Alternative Lawyering Conference organised by ALF in September 2001. His main interest lies in the area of legal histories.
MIRIAM CHINNAPPA : Miriam, a graduate of the University Law College Bangalore, is a Chevening Scholar having done her LLM in human rights from the university of Nottingham, England. She has considerable international human rights work exposure, having worked in the protection unit in UNHCR, Benelux and as Legal Officer at 'Medicines Sans Frontiers' (Afghanistan). Miriam worked with ALF for more then one year, on litigation, outreach, training and advocacy. She has recently gone back to Belgium.
ROOPA M : (BA. LLB Hons) along with Chitra were the first full time working members of the ALF collective. Roopa is currently at NYU doing her LLM in Public Interest Lawyering. Apart from having worked with the National Dairy Development Board, Anand in the legal department, Roopa has worked in the areas of both civil and human rights practise as well as an independent researcher on issues of child sexual abuse and local governance. Her main interests lie in the area of labour, gender and land rights.
SANJAY BAVIKATTE : (BA. LLB. Hons, LLM) is currently teaching law at the University of Georgetown in Guyana. He also has an LLM from the University of Warwick in Law and Development.While at ALF, Sanjay explored alternate livelihood opportunities with women in the sex trade and helped start a legal aid cell for people with disabilities.
SARASU ESTHER THOMAS : She is a graduate and post graduate from National Law School who subsequently started teaching Family Law and Corporate Law at NLS.She is also an integral part of the Centre of Women and Law at NLS.Sarasu has been an active member ever since the inception of ALF. She has been of immense help especially in training and clarifying various concepts relating to personal laws and gender laws.
VISHWAS DEVAIAH: Vishwas , a graduate from the University law College went on to complete his Masters in law from the University of Warwick. Vishwas works on the politcs of intellectual property , especially the Patents Regime and its impact on public health in developing countries.