Senior Managing Attorney
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Arati Vasan is a Senior Managing Attorney who represents survivors on appeal and oversees FVAP’s training, technical assistance, and law clerk/fellow programs. Arati provided full-scope family/civil court representation for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking in the Bay Area for 9 years before joining FVAP. Her work has focused on trauma-informed representation, cultural responsiveness, language access and justice, confidentiality protections, and family/dependency court custody issues for survivors. In 2009, she received her California Domestic Violence Counselor certification through Asian Women’s Shelter. She has been a national faculty trainer for the Vera Institute on Justice and a consultant for Casa de Esperanza. She has provided training for a wide range of stakeholders including national, state, and local direct service agencies, law enforcement, and social services, college, law and high schools, and survivor and community support groups and classes. Since 2008, Arati has been a volunteer with Narika, a domestic violence agency primarily serving South Asian survivors. Prior to FVAP, Arati coordinated the domestic violence program at Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach for many years. During this time, Arati served as a co-chair of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium for three years. While an active member of the SFPD Language Access Working Group, Arati helped to improve law enforcement interactions with survivors including survivors cross-reported to child protective services. Earlier she had a solo family law practice representing survivors of domestic violence. Arati was a pro bono attorney for Bay Area Legal Aid and received their 2010 Individual Pro Bono Leadership Award. Arati has been licensed to practice law in California since 2008. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Law.
