INTERVIEW
31-year-old attorney will be advising Governor Mark Sanford and his staff on legal matters
Washington: “I have always loved politics, it is interesting, intriguing and also involves a lot of public interest work, and I am really excited and happy that I’ve been asked to join Governor (Mark) Sanford’s office,” said Swati Shah Patel, who was recently picked by the Republican governor of South Carolina to be his deputy chief counsel.
Shah Patel, daughter of Indian immigrant parents, was born in Raleigh, N.C., and grew up in South Carolina, where she went to school, college and finished law school before going to work for the South Carolina legislature.
Hers is a success story of an Indian American working her way through college, and an intern who finally made it to the legislative staff of the State House of Representatives. “I worked for five years there and enjoyed every moment of it,” Shah Patel told News India-Times in a telephone interview from Columbia, S.C.
About five months ago, Shah Patel, who married Nitin Patel, a medical graduate, in May last year, moved to Orlando, Fla., to join her husband, who was doing his residency there. She took up a job with law firm Broad and Cassel. But in December, she got a call from Columbia asking her to join the South Carolina governor’s office.
She packed her bags again and moved back to the state to take up the assignment. Shah Patel said her husband would move to Columbia this summer to join her and continue his studies in South Carolina.
Shah Patel would have to draft executive orders and also review the legality of any legislation that is ratified by the State Assembly and advise the governor accordingly. The work is just up her street, she said.
Asked how she landed the job in the governor’s office, Shah Patel said: “I worked for five years in the South Carolina State House of Representatives. I came across a lot of people and have good contacts. This obviously has helped me quite a bit in getting the job.
Talking about her new position as deputy legal counsel to Sanford, Shah Patel said her main task would be to advise the governor and his staff on any legal matters regarding his office, his powers and duties. It would also include review of litigation of all kinds.
Shah Patel would have to draft executive orders and also review the legality of any legislation that is ratified by the State Assembly and advise the governor accordingly. The work is just up her street, she said.
In her last position at Broad and Cassel, she was entrusted with the job of research and drafting legal memoranda regarding tax issues. It also included drafting agreements and handling all corporate formation issues related to affordable housing, commercial real estate transactions, including issues related to government bonds and tax credit issues, and corporate entities.
The 31-year-old attorney said that earlier, during her five-year tenure as legislative aide and legal counsel in the State House of Representatives, she had served on the Judiciary Committee and the Ethics Committee.
Her work on the Judiciary Committee was mainly to supervise legal research related to state and federal law, proposed bills, and special projects. Prior to this Patel worked as a law clerk for the South Carolina Environmental Law Project.
Talking about her parents, Shah Patel said her father, a mechanical engineer, studied in Baroda, Gujarat, before moving to the United States in the early 1960s to do his master’s in engineering in Raleigh, N.C. Shah Patel’s mother works for an insurance firm. Her sister, Shilpa Shah, is a medical student in Charleston, S.C.
As for her hobbies, the young attorney said she loves to travel. She has toured quite a bit of the U.S. --- from Hawaii to Florida --- and she has visited New Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Gujarat in India.
Shah Patel said she was 7 when she first visited India. Ever since, she said, she has been fascinated by the land, the people, the heat, the chaos as well as the warmth and hospitality of the Indian people. “I love just about everything in India. But I also appreciate the life here and feel fortunate for being in the U.S.,” she said.
She last visited India just before her wedding in May last year to shop for her trousseau. She said she got everything, including her bridal dress, from there.
