Ninth Circuit Judge Roopali Desai ('05) to Deliver Keynote Address at 2023 University of Arizona Law Convocation

The Honorable Roopali H. Desai (JD ‘05, MPH ‘01, BA ‘00) will deliver the keynote address at the convocation ceremony for the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law on May 13.  

Judge Desai was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Biden in 2022. She is the first South Asian judge to sit on the country's largest federal appeals court.   

Before joining the court, Judge Desai was in private practice as a partner at the Phoenix law firm Coppersmith Brockelman, where she specialized in complex civil litigation and political law. She was a leading election lawyer in Arizona and handled numerous trials and appellate matters prior to becoming a judge. 

Judge Desai is a professor of practice at the University of Arizona Law and an elected member of the American Law Institute. 

Judge Desai is a triple Wildcat, earning her Bachelor of Arts, Master of Public Health and Juris Doctor all from the University of Arizona. Following law school, she clerked for Chief Judge Emeritus Mary M. Schroeder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Judge Desai and her husband live in Phoenix with their three daughters.