On May 23rd, 2024, President Biden nominated Bethany Pickett Shah to the SJI Board of Directors. She will fill a public member position previously held by Judge John Nalbandian, who resigned after becoming a Circuit Court Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  

Ms. Shah is an attorney with Jackson Walker LLP, where she specializes in complex commercial litigation, government investigations, and white-collar defense. Prior to private practice, she served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Texas, where she represented the United States in criminal prosecutions and civil litigation. Before becoming a prosecutor, she worked at the White House as Deputy Associate Counsel to the President, and at the Department of Justice as a Counsel in the Civil Rights Division and Counsel in the Office of Legal Policy. She is the recipient of several awards for her service, including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas’s Dedicated Service Award. She has also been appointed by the judges of the Eastern District of Texas to serve on the district’s Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel. Ms. Shah is a graduate of The King’s College and Northwestern University School of Law. After law school, she clerked for the Honorable Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.