Professional Experience

Ms. Kaushik’s practice focuses on regulatory matters, including energy and natural resources issues before the California Public Utilities Commission, as well as other aspects of state and federal energy regulation. She has prior experience in litigation and arbitration, including commercial and real estate matters.

Ms. Kaushik has primarily represented natural gas pipeline, oil refinery, renewable power, clean technology, and water utility companies, as well as a tribal organization in matters before the California Public Utilities Commission. She has worked on issues such as market power, affiliate transactions, carbon capture and storage technology, renewable energy credits, greenhouse gas emissions performance standards, and utility rate cases before the California Public Utilities Commission. She has also worked on project development, due diligence, utility tariffs and power purchase agreement issues.

In litigation matters, Ms. Kaushik has represented technology, publishing, healthcare, financial services, and real estate development companies in federal and state court proceedings, as well as in arbitrations.

In 2005, Ms. Kaushik received the Pro Bono Attorney of the Year award for Santa Clara County for her work representing plaintiffs, a class of in pro per prison inmates of Santa Clara County, in a civil rights case against Santa Clara County for deprivation of law libraries and other due process rights. The case and Ms. Kaushik received press coverage in the October 24, 2005, edition of The Recorder.

Prior to her law practice, Ms. Kaushik worked as a government affairs representative for a semiconductor company in Silicon Valley.

Education

Santa Clara University School of Law, J.D., 2003.
Senior Technical Editor, Santa Clara Journal of International Law.

Santa Clara University, B.A., English, magna cum laude, 1998.

Memberships & Activities

Admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.

Former Secretary, Executive Committee of Women Lawyers Section, Santa Clara County Bar Association.

Board Member, Energy Bar Association, Western Chapter.

Member, San Francisco Bay Area Intellectual Property Inns of Court.

Member, South Asian Bar Association.

Member, Conference of California Public Utility Counsel.

Member, Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, 1998 - present.

Member, Association of Women in Water, Energy, and Environment.

Honors & Awards

Pro Bono Attorney of the Year for Santa Clara County from the Santa Clara County Bar Association and Pro Bono Project of Silicon Valley, 2005.

Publications

Co-Author, "Status of California Renewable Policy in 2011,"   Environmental Leader, February 21, 2011.

Co-Author, “Five-Step Guide to Financing Rooftop Solar,” Environmental Leader, November 25, 2009.

“A Closer Look at a Partner’s Duties of Loyalty and Care,” ATLA Business Torts Newsletter, Vol. 10, No. 3, Spring 2006.

“The Essential Nexus Between Transformative Laws and Culture: the Ineffectiveness of Dowry Prohibition Laws of India,” Santa Clara Journal of International Law, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2003.