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- We are professionals dedicated to fighting discrimination through litigation, as well as counseling those who embrace the vision of an inclusive society.
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- We focus on civil rights because we want to hasten the time when choices about where to live, work, and go to school are not constrained by discrimination and segregation.
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- We litigate cutting-edge civil rights cases nationally. We also counsel progressive companies that want to incorporate civil rights principles into their operations.
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Ellora Israni is a South Asian woman in her 30s. She is wearing a blue jacket and glasses and smiling.

Ellora Israni

Attorney

Ellora Thadaney Israni is an Attorney at Relman Colfax. Ellora joined the firm in 2024. Her civil rights litigation practice focuses on challenging various forms of racial and economic injustice, with a focus on criminal legal system-involved individuals.

Prior to joining the firm, Ellora was an attorney at Civil Rights Corps in Washington, D.C., where she litigated cases challenging systemic injustices in the criminal legal system in federal and state courts around the country. Her matters included challenges to a novel pretrial detention system in Maryland, wealth-based jailing in Oregon and Tennessee, and police violence in the District of Columbia. She also authored amicus briefs arguing against policies that discriminate against Black, brown, and poor people, such as debt-based driver’s license suspensions. Ellora worked closely with community partners to develop multi-pronged advocacy strategies that used litigation as a tool to shift power to community-led movements. Prior to her work at Civil Rights Corps, Ellora clerked on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Ellora graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School. During law school, Ellora served as a Student Attorney at the Criminal Justice Institute, representing indigent persons charged with crimes in Boston, and as the Managing Editor of the Harvard Law Review, where she supervised the production of a special issue on prison abolition.

Featured Cases

City of Baltimore v. The Agora Companies, LLC.
Dr. Raven Baxter – Housing Discrimination in Virginia Beach
Puryear v. Dotson
Relman Colfax secured relief for Leslie Puryear and potentially hundreds of other people in his position in this habeas corpus case, filed with the ACLU of Virginia. The case involved a challenge to continued confinement by the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) after Mr. Puryear had earned sufficient sentence credits to secure his release.
Stanton Square LLC v. City of New Orleans
In October 2023, Relman Colfax filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of Stanton Square, LLC, a housing developer, against the City of New Orleans and its City Council. The lawsuit alleges that the City of New Orleans delayed, prevented, and otherwise interfered with Plaintiff’s attempts to construct The Village at English Turn, a multi-family affordable housing apartment complex for working and middle-class individuals and families in the City of New Orleans.

Education

J.D., Harvard Law School

B.S., Stanford University

Admissions

District of Columbia
California

Clerkships

United States District Court
Northern District of California

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