Year Joined Organization: 2008

Languages

• Gujarati
• Hindi
• Urdu
• Lisaan-e-Da'wat
• Spanish
• Arabic

Lawyer Overview

Mariyam Cementwala is an associate in the firm's Litigation/Controversy Department, with particular interests in investigations and criminal litigation. She joined the firm in 2008.

Past Experience

While in law school, Ms. Cementwala completed a summer externship for the Honorable Richard R. Clifton, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where she wrote and reviewed bench and comment memoranda and dispositions. She also researched ERISA, habeas law, constitutional and civil procedure issues and assisted during the panel calendar.

During her time at Boalt Hall, she served on the California Law Review and worked as an articles editor and a senior article editor on the Berkeley Journal of International Law. She also served on Boalt Hall’s Financial Aid and Admissions Committee.

Ms. Cementwala has been a legal research consultant and United Nations delegate for Rehabilitation International (RI) since 2003. She has written and reviewed position papers and represented RI at the United Nations on Disability Treaty negotiations. Ms. Cementwala has also done legal research work for Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization, and the World Bank’s Disability and Development Group, Social Protection Unit. Between 1998 and 2003, she also lobbied for legislation promoting greater access and equity on behalf of blind Americans to the US Congress.

Community Involvement

Ms. Cementwala was an active leader in the National Federation of the Blind between 1997 and 2004. She remains basally engaged in the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community in the US and abroad. She is an active alumna within the US-Ireland alliance, whose flagship program is the Sen. Mitchell Scholarship. 

Publications

• “Crossing Borders: International Perspectives on Disability Rights,” Delivered at the 2005 All Staff Training of Protection & Advocacy, Inc. Fremont, CA. April 30, 2005.
• “The Right to (Re)habilitation,” Position Paper for the United Nations 3^rd Ad Hoc Committee Meeting on the UN Treaty on The Rights and Dignity of Person with disabilities. RI. New York. May 2004. [Reprinted in Jan. 2005]
• “The Friendly Face of Discrimination” NFB of California Journal. Burbank, CA Reprinted in The Voice of the Nations Blind. Chris Danielson, ed. Baltimore, MD: NFB. Spring 2005.

Areas of Practice

• Litigation/Controversy

Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia
• California

Education

• University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, 2007
  JD
• National University of Ireland, Galway
• University of California, Berkeley, 2002
  BA, Political Science
  Honors: distinction in general scholarship, high honors

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Washington, DC 20006

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Emails

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Websites

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