Anandhi Rajan (J.D. ’92) is a top litigator in Atlanta practicing in employment and general liability. With more than 25 years of experience, she’s handled claims related to products liability, automobile liability, premises liability, mass torts defense and beyond. However, litigation isn’t where she thought her career would take her.
After graduating from Georgia State Law, Rajan thought she may go into corporate law. Instead, she landed a clerkship with Judge Gail Tusan who had recently been appointed to the Fulton County State Court. Working in Judge Tusan’s chambers, Rajan was able to see the ins and outs of litigation. During her two years there, Rajan realized litigation was nothing like Hollywood’s portrayal of it, but also much more than what she learned in the classroom.
“I started looking at litigators in the courtroom thinking, ‘this is nothing that I can't do, and I could probably do it better than a lot of these people’,” said Rajan.
She started as an associate at the well-regarded litigation firm of Long, Weinberg, Ansley & Wheeler, which allowed her to develop as an attorney. When that firm dissolved, she joined another highly-regarded firm, Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers, LLP, in 1999, where she’s been a partner for the past 20 years in the litigation practice group. Rajan says one thing that’s helped her be successful in her practice is to not be adversarial all the time, and only ramping it up when needed.
“To think about how many years have gone by, it's a positive thing because it doesn’t feel like an eternity,” Rajan said. “It's gotten even better over the years, because I think with maturity you get to a point where you think, ‘I am just going to say it how it is,’ as opposed to when you're younger and have the knowledge but are just a bit timid.”
While she doesn’t know what her life would look like had she gone the transactional corporate route she once thought she might, she finds a lot of gratification in litigation. Not only from being in court and presenting her case, but also from the relationships she builds with her clients.
“As a lawyer, you have to be a counselor many times while walking your clients through the process,” said Rajan. “You're doing your job, but it means so much for some people and they’re beyond grateful. I really enjoy that aspect.”
Regardless of the path she chose, she feels as though Georgia State Law set her up well for success. She continues to see great lawyers come out of the College of Law, with many alums also being her colleagues at Swift Currie.
“What I liked about Georgia State Law was all the diversity in every aspect,” Rajan said. “Not just in the way we think traditionally of diversity, but there were people in my class that were older, had second careers, full-time jobs or families, which I thought was just admirable. Everybody else was not a fresh-out-of-college 20-something trying to one up the other person. There was a maturity in each class that I really liked, which made for a far richer and valuable experience.”
Written by Mara Thompson