Subodh Chandra

A former federal prosecutor, large-city law director, and large-firm litigator, Subodh Chandra is The Chandra Law Firm LLC's founding and managing partner. His practice focuses on high-profile civil-rights litigation.

Chandra is engaged for high-stakes litigation when reputations are on the line. His matters often have a public-interest, crisis-communications, and public-policy dimension.

Examples include

• the police-shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by Cleveland police—a key moment in the Black Lives Matter movement nationally resulting in a $6,000,000 settlement,
• the nearly $1,000,000 in settlements for 2016 Republican National Convention protestors,
• voting-rights litigation against various voter-suppression schemes by the Ohio General Assembly and Secretary of State,
• the retaliation suit over sexual-harassment allegations that resulted in the resignation of Case Western Reserve University's law-school dean,
• the two leading Supreme Court of Ohio cases establishing private civil causes of action for criminal acts, and
• the private-citizen-initiated criminal charges against Donald Trump and JD Vance for their misconduct toward Springfield, Ohio and its Haitian community.

Before founding the firm, Chandra served as director of law for the city of Cleveland, a billion-dollar corporation. Chandra led the work of an 82-lawyer department with both criminal and civil divisions. He also sometimes served as Cleveland's acting mayor.

As Cleveland's general counsel, Chandra handled legal work in-house and slashed spending on outside counsel by nearly 90%, saving millions; moved vigorously through in-house investigations to clean up internal corruption; restored the department's reputation; and attracted top performers who helped make it Ohio's most diverse law firm. And his tough-minded, preventive approach reduced Cleveland's liability exposure and payments significantly.

Previously, as a federal prosecutor, Chandra successfully prosecuted healthcare fraud and corruption—earning commendations from FBI Director Robert Mueller for "demonstrated excellence" and from the special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland office. Chandra also prosecuted tax fraud, bank fraud, and other economic crimes.

Before that, Chandra served as a litigator in large law firms in both Cleveland and Los Angeles. Chandra defended the cities of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills against high-profile allegations of police misconduct, and represented large media companies and motion-picture studios. Some of his more memorable work included helping defend the television show "Hard Copy" against libel charges by the singer Michael Jackson.

Chandra began his legal career as special presidential counsel at the American Bar Association.

Chandra is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where he was executive editor of the Yale Law & Policy Review. He also graduated with honors and dual-departmental distinction from Stanford University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his junior year, and which awarded him the John Gardner Fellowship to work as a protégé of Ohio Governor Richard F. Celeste.

Chandra has served as Distinguished Practitioner in Residence at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, teaching appellate practice and legal ethics. He has also served as a legal-ethics and attorneys' fees expert in litigation.

Long active in assisting people who aspire to public service, Chandra was also a 2006 candidate for Ohio Attorney General, winning most newspaper endorsements. The Cincinnati Enquirer called Chandra "the best candidate Ohio Democrats have produced in years." Chandra was also one of the earliest supporters of President Barack H. Obama, serving on his National Finance Committee, on the national Asian-American advisory committee, and as an Obama delegate to and deputy whip of the Ohio delegation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Civically active, Chandra in 2021 was the principal author—on behalf of police-misconduct victims' families—of the city of Cleveland charter amendment that effects greater civilian disciplinary and policy oversight over Cleveland police, and requires that a civilian oversight body maintain Brady evidence records of police officers who have been dishonest. Voters adopted the reform initiative, a model for the nation, overwhelmingly.

Chandra served for 13 years as a member, and a three-year term as co-vice chair, of the Special Ohio Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

Chandra is admitted to practice law in California, Ohio, and New Mexico (inactive), and in many federal courts nationwide.

Based on peer review, Chandra has been included in Best Lawyers® in America for civil rights and Super Lawyers®. He's been included in America's Top 50 Lawyers. Under his leadership, Chandra Law has been peer-reviewed and included in U.S. News and World Reports's Best Law Firms in America for Civil Rights. He was named 2022 Lawyer of the Year in Civil Rights by Best Lawyers® in America.

Chandra's civil-rights legal work is featured in the independent documentaries Free for All! (2008), PAY 2 PLAY: Democracy's High Stakes (2014), 137 Shots (Netflix 2021), the forthcoming Crime & Parody (2026), and the play "Objectively Reasonable" (2016) about the Tamir Rice case.

Chandra and his wife are the proud parents of triplet sons.