Mehwish Shaukat is the Executive Director of the Appellate Justice Center (AJC). She briefs and argues high-impact civil rights cases in federal courts of appeals across the country. She has obtained precedent-setting appellate victories in multiple circuits, and she has briefed qualified immunity issues before the United States Supreme Court. As Executive Director, Mehwish leads and litigates AJC’s appellate docket. 

Prior to her role as Executive Director, Mehwish spent years litigating at O’Melveny & Myers and the MacArthur Justice Center. Her appellate practice spans federal courts of appeals nationwide, and she regularly collaborates with civil rights organizations, law firms, and impact-litigation partners on complex appellate matters across a broad range of civil rights issues. Her practice focuses on the identification and development of complex civil rights appeals, most recently including cases involving religious liberty, the First Amendment, conditions of confinement, solitary confinement, and qualified immunity.

Mehwish is a frequently sought-after speaker on civil rights and appellate advocacy and has been invited to deliver seminar-style lectures at law schools including Harvard Law School, Georgetown Law, and Northwestern Law School. She received her J.D. from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.