#55 Medha Gargeya: Associate Counsel to VP Kamala Harris, U.S. Air Force Reservist, Adjunct Professor
On service from the military to the VP's office
Welcome! I’m Simi Shah, and in this newsletter, I dive deep into the journeys of South Asian trailblazers. Find our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms and upcoming episodes + events on our Instagram & LinkedIn.
Latest Episode ⚖️ Medha Gargeya, Associate Counsel to VP Kamala Harris, U.S. Air Force Reservist, Adjunct Professor
In this episode, I caught up with Medha Gargeya: Associate Counsel to Vice President Kamala Harris, reservist with the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, and Adjunct Professor of Law.
As Associate Counsel at the White House, Medha helps manage ethics and oversight for the Vice President's office and works on policy areas ranging from criminal justice to voting and reproductive rights. She is a member of the reserve force of the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps, the legal arm of the U.S. military's air force.
She previously worked at the international law firm, WilmerHale LLP, where she focused on administrative law, appeals, and anti-discrimination matters. Medha's foray into government service began in 2020, when she worked on voter protection for the Biden-Harris campaign in North Carolina and eventually worked on judicial nominations during the Presidential Transition. The year prior, Medha was a law clerk to the Honorable Roger Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. She has also spent time as an adjunct professor at the University of South Dakota School of Law teaching Art Law. Medha received her A.B. and J.D. from Harvard University. Episode excerpts below:
Simi: Today, you serve the most powerful woman in the free world: Vice President Kamala Harris. Can you tell us about your key responsibilities as Associate Legal Counsel to the Vice President?
Medha: I work on ethics and oversight, which is internal to the VP’s office. I also work on policy issues that come up day to day. It vacillates between feeling the momentousness of ‘Yes, we are working for a historic, trailblazing fearless, fierce woman who has so many amazing ideas,’ and….who wants to see them implemented. She travels and talks about what government can do for people, what policies we've enacted to make resources more accessible to the everyday American. And a part of that is making sure she's briefed for all of those meetings — with background on the state of the law in each place she visits.
I focus on voting rights and criminal justice reform because that's obviously something of interest to the Vice President as a former prosecutor, and of course, just with the current state of play in the United States. I also work on reproductive rights, a big issue for her, and gun reform, which is especially important given the series of mass shootings. As the lawyers in the VP’s office, we're able to look through statutes and legislative history to understand what laws are currently in place and to think about which direction the needle needs to be moved in.
Simi: You are a reservist with the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps — the legal arm of the U.S. military’s air force. What motivated you to serve?
Medha: My parents are super supportive of everything I do, but when I told them I wanted to join the military, they laughed in my face. They asked, ‘Are you sure this is the right fit for you?’ I remember hearing about the draft and selective service. I have a younger brother, and I remember thinking, ‘Manu, my brother has to sign up. Why can’t I? Why is there a difference? Just because I'm a woman? That doesn't feel right.’ And so I went on my high horse, and I thought I was going to apply to a military academy in high school. But then I came to the stark realization that I couldn't run a mile. I was not physically ready. And so I thought, maybe I'll revisit this at a later point.
The judge I clerked for on the Eight Circuit served in the U.S. Army. And we spoke a lot about his experience. And what I liked about it was that it was just so separate from the rest of his legal trajectory. He did it for the sake of service — it wasn't really about the outcome. I don't think that he approached it from the perspective of ‘What skills am I going to get, or how is this gonna look good on my resume?’ He just did it. And of course, the draft was very much a thing in his time. But the idea that you just do something for the sake of service was really enticing to me. So I applied in the Fall of 2019, and wrote this essay about American values and my immigrant experience. I thought it was a great essay. Then, I got rejected. And I was very disappointed. I spoke to my recruiter, and he said a lot of folks are skeptical of people who don't have a military background. And I don't. My folks never served. Even in India, we don't really have much of a military background. And so I reapplied to kind of reaffirm my commitment that I was serious about this, and I got in. I’m super grateful that I did.
In this episode, I peel back the layers on Medha’s passion for service and her dynamic range of legal experiences across the three branches of American government. Tune into the full episode on Apple, Spotify, or our website!