Chatura Patil LL.M.’24 grew up in India, where her mother and brother are doctors, and her father is a successful businessman. Her parents expected her to be a doctor, too, but she chose another route: the law. That decision put her on an interesting career path that eventually brought her halfway around the world to Syracuse Law’s LL.M. program, opening up a new world of opportunities for her.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in finance in India, Patil moved to New York City to work as an intern. In 2014, she returned to India to earn an LL.B. from Bharati Vidyapeeth University and then an LL.M. in corporate and financial law from O.P. Jinal Global Law University, a partner school of Syracuse Law. After that, her legal career began to take off, working at several law firms as an intellectual property associate, a senior legal associate, and later in contract management and compliance.
While working for Udemy, a leader in online learning, as international commercial counsel for the E.U. and Middle East region and then for North America and Canada, she came to appreciate the utility of possessing a license to practice law in the U.S. as a way to advance her career. She then decided it was time to pursue another LL.M., and she began down the path that led her to Syracuse Law.
If she was going to pursue an LL.M. in the U.S., she knew she wanted to study in New York State. Patil had always lived in big cities, so she was eager for a slower-paced, mid-size city like Syracuse.
“Syracuse Law checked off all the boxes, and I was drawn by the engagement with the faculty and the many pro bono programs and extracurricular activities I could participate in to expand my knowledge of the law. There are so many resources here. Every time I’d hear of an opportunity, I’d put it on my checklist. I decided I would check off everything on that list before I graduated.”
Chatura Patil LL.M.’24
“Syracuse Law checked off all the boxes, and I was drawn by the engagement with the faculty and the many pro bono programs and extracurricular activities I could participate in to expand my knowledge of the law,” she explains. “There are so many resources here. Every time I’d hear of an opportunity, I’d put it on my checklist. I decided I would check off everything on that list before I graduated.”
She’s done an outstanding job at accomplishing that goal. Patil has been involved in several student organizations, including the Women’s Law Student Association, of which she was the class representative this past year. She was also elected by her peers to serve as the Class of 2024 LL.M. representative to the Student Bar Association.
“American law has a very different structure from Indian law. India is a conservative and developing society, where women tend to steer towards corporate law, not litigation. When I see the legal landscape in America, especially through my work at the Volunteer Lawyers Project, I see that you don’t have to worry about your gender. There’s that difference where men and women are following the same dream in their profession.”
Chatura Patil LL.M.’24
“American law has a very different structure from Indian law. India is a conservative and developing society, where women tend to steer towards corporate law, not litigation,” she explains. “When I see the legal landscape in America, especially through my work at the Volunteer Lawyers Project, I see that you don’t have to worry about your gender. There’s that difference where men and women are following the same dream in their profession.”
She also worked as a justice fellow at the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY, Inc., a fellowship she started last January, and worked on immigration law matters pro bono.
Patil is grateful to a number of faculty and staff for helping her succeed in the LL.M. program. Her biggest supporter has been the Assistant Dean of International Programs, Andrew Horsfall, who “has been a mentor to me since Day 1,” she says. “He has answered my questions, let me share good news and bad, helped me choose the right classes, and just been there for me. Without Andrew, there is no LL.M. program.”
She was also struck by how accessible the professors are to students, citing Professors Paula Johnson, director of the Cold Case Justice Initiative, and Rakesh Anand, as two who have been particularly impactful to her while she was in the LL.M. program.
“Professor Johnson is just an amazing soul. She is a really busy person, but she’s very down to earth,” Patil says. “I told her how criminal law was a new subject for me and how hard it was to keep up. She gave me a one-hour recap that would have taken me two months to learn on my own,” Patil says. “And, Professor Anand is amazing. I haven’t even had him for a class, but you don’t have to be in his class for him to remember you. He is willing to talk to you and give you good career advice. I really respect him and appreciate getting feedback from him.”
Now that she has just graduated from the LL.M. program, Patil is preparing to take the New York State Bar Exam. Starting in August, Patil will be clerking for the Hon. Robert Bingham II, of the Mercer County (N.J.) criminal court. Ultimately, she would like to practice in the U.S., but she is open to wherever all of this takes her. Navigating the LL.M. program in a new country was a challenge for Patil, but one she has met quite successfully. She is glad she took a chance on herself and came to Syracuse Law to further her education.
“If I do something, I want to be the best at it. Indian parents are always pushing their children to do more. You grow up with that mindset, and you don’t see anything wrong with that,” she says of where she got the strength to pursue her dreams. “I am my parents’ daughter; nothing in life is too big to achieve.”