In April, Priti Suri, founding partner of PSA Legal Counsellors in New Delhi, was honoured with the prestigious Mayre Rasmussen Award for the Advancement of Women in International Law by the American Bar Association in Washington. Suri was the first Asian to receive this award in its 18-year history.
“Priti’s role as a mentor and in opening doors for women and women lawyers in India make her the perfect candidate for the Mayre Rasmussen Award,” the ABA stated.
Rasmussen was one of the first women to break into the international business law practice at a major international law firm, Coudert Brothers. Following her work in private practice, she went on to successes in corporate law departments of two different companies in the San Francisco area. She was one of the first women to achieve a major leadership position in ABA’s Section of International Law and Practice.
Suri has been a groundbreaking lawyer in her own right in India, forging ahead in a legal system which often discounted women from its ranks. She has mentored many lawyers, with an eye out for talented young women who would follow in her footsteps and work with the same intensity she has exhibited. She established SOWL – the Society of Women Lawyers – along with like-minded colleagues, to give a voice to female legal practitioners in India.
In accepting the award, Suri said that her goal is to “personally make sure that young women who want to practice international law have a platform to do so” and that “her work has only just begun.”