Anjali Nair
Deputy Director
Anjali Nair has dedicated her career to civil rights advocacy in the Deep South. She graduated the University of Michigan and joined the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a bilingual outreach paralegal working alongside Indian guestworkers trafficked into the United States in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Thereafter, at Boston College Law School, Anjali continued her commitment to civil rights activism at nationally-recognized organizations, including the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. In 2012, Anjali returned to the SPLC as a staff attorney during which time developed and litigated complex federal civil rights claims on behalf of LGBT individuals and gender non-conforming youth, while ultimately serving on the trial team for the case she was a paralegal for. The case resulted in a precedential verdict against labor traffickers and the trial team received the 2015 Public Justice Co-Trial Lawyer of the Year award. During this time Anjali also worked on advocacy centering equal access to educational opportunities for families in Alabama after passage of Alabama’s anti-immigrant legislation.
In 2015, Anjali worked at the New York City Commission on Human Rights as a staff attorney to investigate, mediate, and prosecute civil rights claims. In 2017, Anjali returned to SPLC when it launched a legal services program known as the Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative (SIFI) to represent individuals in immigrant detention centers in the southeast. While there, the program scaled its efforts to have a greater physical footprint across Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and expanded its docket to challenge immigration enforcement actions and call for an end to immigrant detention in some of the most notorious, hostile, and fatal jurisdictions for individuals in detention.
Outside of work, Anjali enjoys finding good cups of iced coffee and finding used bookstores.
As a longtime admirer and partner of Advancing Justice-Atlanta, Anjali is excited to support the organization's legacy and evolution.