Nitika Khaitan is a criminal defense lawyer and researcher, whose research focuses on legal professional ethics under authoritarian regimes and the mental health of lawyers in India. After recent civil liberties crackdowns, she pro bono represented and secured bail for dozens of detainees from persecuted religious minorities and notable activists, including winning a landmark bail judgment under India’s anti-terror law. With one of India’s leading democratic rights coalitions, she has published widely on political prisoners and repressive laws, and led numerous fact-finding investigations into police brutality and custodial deaths. She has authored several policy reports and led national advocacy campaigns on gender and sexuality rights, including on sexual harassment within the judiciary and laws discriminating against LGBTQ+ persons. She holds a B.A. in Humanities magna cum laude from Yale University (2016), an LL.B. from the University of Delhi (2019), and is currently an LL.M. candidate at Harvard Law School. Her work has appeared in leading Indian journals and newspapers, including Economic and Political Weekly, The Caravan and The Indian Express. She has been featured by international publications including The New York Times, Financial Times and Al Jazeera. Nitika will be a joint fellow with the The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.