Faculty

Neil Makhija

Lecturer in Law

Neil Makhija is an attorney at the law firm of Berger & Montague, P.C. and Lecturer in Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
 
In 2016, Mr. Makhija was the Democratic Nominee for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 122nd House District, where he outperformed the national Democratic ticket by 14 points in the general election. During his candidacy for the state legislature, Mr. Makhija won the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court case, In Re: Makhija (2016), which protected the rights of students and recent graduates to run for office in their home state under the Pennsylvania Constitution.
 
Mr. Makhija has served as an aide to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the U.S. Senate, the Office of Vice President Joe Biden in The White House, and the Counsel to the Mayor in New York City Hall. Over the past ten years, he has also co-founded, managed, or advised advocacy groups, campaigns, and community organizations at the state, local, and national level.
 
Mr. Makhija earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School on the Horace DeYoung Lentz Scholarship, which was endowed by a 19th century Pennsylvania coal magnate. While at Harvard, he founded the HLS Homelessness Coalition and was a Senior Policy Editor on the Harvard Law & Policy Review. He received his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, where he studied neuroscience and served as co-president of his class and commencement speaker. 
 
A s the son of immigrants and a proud native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Makhija is passionate about enfranchising underrepresented communities and engaging young people in state and local politics. He currently practices law at Berger & Montague, P.C., a nationally recognized class action, antitrust, consumer protection, employment law firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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