Overview
June 21, 2017 – International law firm McDermott Will & Emery is pleased to announce that Amandeep Sidhu has been recognized as one of the “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” by the Asian American Business Development Center. Joined by several McDermott partners and clients, he was presented with the honor at the annual Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Awards Gala Dinner held last night in New York City.
A partner in McDermott’s Litigation practice group, Mr. Sidhu focuses his practice on complex commercial disputes with an emphasis on regulated industries, including health care-related investigations and litigation. He represents hospitals and health care companies in investigations and defense of qui tam whistleblower litigation involving federal False Claims Act (FCA), Stark Laws and Anti-Kickback Statute in federal district courts throughout the United States. Mr. Sidhu actively serves as a long-time member of McDermott’s Pro Bono & Community Service Committee, as well as the Racial and Ethnic Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
As member of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington, DC and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), Mr. Sidhu has been actively involved in supporting the Asian American community throughout his career. This commitment is also reflected in Mr. Sidhu’s active pro bono practice. As a co-founder of the Sikh Coalition—the largest Sikh advocacy organization in the US, founding in the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks—Mr. Sidhu brought the organization on as a pro bono client in 2007. Over the past decade, Mr. Sidhu has led a team of dozens of McDermott attorneys in a wide variety of important matters, including hate crimes, racial/religious profiling in airports, and child bullying in schools. Most significantly, Mr. Sidhu has served as lead counsel with the Sikh Coalition in a multi-year effort to end the US military’s presumptive ban on the service of observant Sikhs. His team has helped over 20 Sikh Americans obtain religious accommodations from the US Army, permitting them to serve while maintaining their articles of faith.
On January 3, 2017, after nearly eight years of steady advocacy, the US Army finally issued an updated policy that substantially streamlines the religious accommodation approval process and requires the Army to grant accommodations for sincerely held religious beliefs, including unshorn hair and turbans, except in very limited circumstances. With this success in hand, Mr. Sidhu and his team are now moving on to the next chapter—convincing the entire DoD to enact similar policies.
Mr. Sidhu is also currently supporting McDermott’s efforts to respond to President Trump’s executive order regarding immigration and travel from several Muslim-majority countries, including filing an amicus brief in the State of Hawaii v. Trump, on behalf of NAPABA.
Mr. Sidhu has been widely recognized for his leadership in the legal profession. In 2011, he was named to the National Law Journal’s Minority Top 40 Under 40 and in 2013, The Economic Times named him a “Legal Eagle of Indian Origin.” Earlier this year, the National Law Journal named McDermott to its 2017 Pro Bono Hot List—based on Mr. Sidhu’s leadership on the US military religious accommodation matters. Just last week, Mr. Sidhu was named to the Washington Business Journal’s “40 Under 40 List,” which highlights 40 of Washington DC area’s top business professionals under the age of 40.
About The Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Awards
The Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Awards Gala Dinner first established in 2001 by the Asian American Business Development Center, has remained the only forum to highlight the achievements of Asian Americans business professionals across the US. The award recipients represent a microcosm of the best of Asian American entrepreneurs, professionals and corporate executives who are engaged in a wide range of business interests, and all of whom have a role in driving the US economy.