President Biden appoints Indian-American to federal agency overseeing administrative efficiency

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President Biden announced the appointment of three members to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) Sept. 30, 2021, one of them an Indian-American Nitin Shah.

The ACUS is an independent federal agency charged with convening expert representatives from the public and private sectors to recommend improvements to administrative process and procedure. The agency’s initiatives “promote efficiency, participation, and fairness in the promulgation of federal regulations and in the administration of federal programs,” the White House said in a press release Sept. 30, 2021. The ten-member ACUS Council is composed of government officials and private citizens.

The other two members appointed along with Shah are Leslie B. Kiernan and Funmi Olorunippa Badejo.

Shah currently serves as General Counsel of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). He oversees all legal matters arising before the agency, is GSA’s Designated Agency Ethics Official and Chief FOIA Officer, and manages a nationwide office of approximately 170 attorneys and staff.

During his career, Shah has focused on administrative law issues from various perspectives. He previously served in the Department of Justice in several capacities, including as Chief of Staff of the Civil Division and as an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel. He also served as senior counsel at a nonprofit organization focused on administrative litigation and was a legal director for the Biden-Harris Transition Team.

Shah clerked for Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Hon. T.S. Ellis III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Born and raised in San Diego, he is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law.