The South Asian Bar Association of Greater Boston (SABA GB) held an ‘Outstanding Achievement Awards’ ceremony and reception at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston on July 18, 2018 to honor six SABA GB members and South Asian attorneys who had extraordinary professional accomplishments over the past year. Founded in 2004, SABA GB’s mission is to promote and support the advancement of South Asian attorneys within the legal community. In its short history, several SABA GB members have held positions in public office or the judiciary, but this event was the first time that the organization celebrated the extraordinary accomplishments of six members in a year. 

The honorees included the Honorable Sabita Singh, the Honorable Tejal Mehta, the Honorable Neil Sherring, Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination Chairwoman Sunila Thomas George, Wakefield Town Councilor Mehreen Butt, and Cambridge City Councillor Sumbul Siddiqui.

Held in the stunning rotunda of the Courthouse, the event kicked off with welcome remarks from SABA GB President, Rashima Shukla. Shukla was followed by SABA GB Board Member and Event Chair, Keerthi Sugumaran, who recognized each honoree while members of the SABA Board of Directors presented the awards. Over one hundred members of the South Asian Bar, government officials, family, friends, and well-wishers attended the ceremony.

Each of the honorees were recognized as trailblazers. Notably, Justice Singh was the first South Asian attorney to be appointed to the judiciary in 2006 and was recently the first South Asian Justice to be appointed to the Massachusetts Appeals Court. She is now joined by her colleagues, Justices Tejal Mehta and Neil Sherring, as three out of five South Asian Judges in the Commonwealth. Chairwoman Sunila Thomas George is the first Asian-American attorney to chair the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Councilor Mehreen Butt of Wakefield is the first Muslim-American woman elected to a municipality in Massachusetts.  Councillor Sumbul Siddiqui is the first South Asian and Muslim American councillor in the city of Cambridge. 

Lon Povich, Chief Legal Counsel to the Office of the Governor, presented citations to each honoree and made remarks on behalf of Governor Charlie Baker – who while in office, has supported the current appointments of four of the honorees. 

SABA GB commends the accomplishments of each of these honorees. As Sugumaran noted of the honorees, “Their achievements represent important momentum for the South Asian legal community’s presence in local government. Momentum that we hope will only continue to build.” 

The honorees are pictured with the Governor’s Chief Legal Counsel, Lon Povich.