Rakesh Kilaru

Rakesh specializes in delivering favorable results to clients at every stage of litigation. Since joining Wilkinson Stekloff, Rakesh has played a leading, stand-up role in high-profile trial victories for Bayer and the NCAA, obtained major summary judgment victories for Bayer and Georgia-Pacific, secured full dismissal of a groundbreaking enforcement action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before any discovery was taken, and successfully defended a sitting federal judge in mandamus proceedings in the D.C. Circuit.

Equally adept in courtrooms and boardrooms, Rakesh is called upon to develop winning strategies in his clients’ most significant litigation matters. He is currently playing a lead strategic role in five high-stakes class actions or mass torts involving products liability, antitrust, and civil RICO claims, including serving as lead trial counsel for a sovereign Indian nation in a putative consumer class action in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Before joining the firm, Rakesh was a Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel in the Office of White House Counsel, where he provided legal advice and strategic counseling to the Obama Administration on its domestic policy agenda. He also helped to develop and implement the government’s litigation strategy in cases arising under the Affordable Care Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Rakesh began his career clerking for Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Rakesh is also active in the legal community. He sits on the Board of the Legal Aid Society for the District of Columbia, and is an editor of the Green Bag and a member of The American Lawyer’s Young Lawyer Editorial Board. He also serves on the Nominations Committee of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association-DC, and previously served as a Director of APABA-DC’s Education Fund.