Banafsheh Akhlaghi is a pioneering civil and human rights attorney, educator, Board member, bestselling author and social entrepreneur. She started her career as a professor of Constitutional Law at the John F. Kennedy School of Law. She founded the National Legal Sanctuary for Community Advancement (NLSCA), a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the human rights and dignity of Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (MEMSA) peoples, which emerged as one of the lead advocates of human rights for the MEMSA community in the post-9/11 era. Akhlaghi has worked as a consultant with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and is the former director of the West Region for Amnesty International.

Her practice area today focuses upon intellectual property rights, ESG, Human Capital, and business strategy as outside general counsel to mission driven startups.

She has won many awards for her work, including the Fred Korematsu Civil Rights Award and was nominated for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Akhlaghi was named “Top 100 Leading Lawyers in California” and “Top 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal. She has received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the U.S. House of Representatives and currently serves as Chair of the California State Bar Legal Services Trust Fund Commission administrating nearly $150 million to legal service providers in the State.

She was invited as keynote speaker & panelist at over 300 public speaking engagements. Notably: Congressional Informal Hearings, Amnesty International, ACLU national conferences & multiple educational & governmental institutions.

She is an on-going advisor to various news media sources including CNN, NPR, BBC, CBC, AP, New York Times and Al Jazeera English providing commentary and analysis on human rights, national security, and legal matters.
Akhlaghi received her B.A. from the University of San Francisco, with attendance at Cambridge University, and her J.D. from Tulane University. She is a member of the California and San Francisco Bar Associations and a Commission Member of the State Bar of California.

Links to Banafsheh’s work:

Web: https://www.iranhumanrights.org/bio-banafsheh-akhlaghi
Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0992011604/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_FG75DBAE2N97NNMMG8TJ
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/banafsheh-a-407b164
Facebook: ​​https://www.facebook.com/beautifulreminders
IG: https://www.instagram.com/bakhlaghi
Twitter: https://twitter.com/banafshehmedia