SPRINGFIELD — Local Assistant U.S. Attorney Deepika Bains Shukla is among four candidates short-listed to replace outgoing Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling, sources have confirmed.
Shukla, 39, has been the head of the Springfield U.S. Attorney’s Office since 2019, joining the ranks of prosecutors after several years as a community organizer and housing attorney in New York City, and later as an attorney with anti-discrimination agencies. As a woman of Indian descent, she is the youngest head of the office, the first female and the first woman of color to hold the post.
First reported by the Boston Globe, the short list includes Shukla; Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins; Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Serafyn, chief of the civil rights unit in Boston; and Josh Levy, a former assistant U.S. attorney and partner at Ropes & Gray, one of the most prominent Boston law firms.
Shukla declined to comment for this story.
But two local attorneys confirmed they received phone calls recently from members of an advisory panel assembled to vet candidates before they move on to the next step of the process, controlled by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.
“I think she has a high degree of integrity. ... I think she is very honest,” said Northampton criminal defense lawyer David P. Hoose, president of Greater Springfield Lawyers for Justice. “I think she is open to the idea of change as far as the way things have been done in the past. I don’t expect her to be a flaming radical if she is selected, but I think she is open to listening to the defense bar, and to others in terms of a different way to look at things.”
Among two Western Massachusetts members of the advisory committee tapped to forward potential successors for Lelling’s job, Springfield attorney John Pucci also declined to be interviewed for this story. But in a previous interview Pucci also said he welcomed a candidate with an eye for change in the judicial system.
By virtue of geography, Shukla may be a dark horse candidate. Members of the Western Massachusetts bar historically tend to get frozen out of many statewide legal and judicial appointments in favor of Greater Boston candidates. However, Hoose and others say Shukla is very competent and fits the political zeitgeist as a young, progressive woman of color.
“To me she’s always been reasonable and measured, and not a flame-thrower at all,” said Berkshire County defense attorney Lori H. Levinson, who found herself on the other side of the prosecution of former Lee Police Chief Joseph Buffis, convicted of corruption in connection with a charitable children’s Christmas toy fund linked to the police department. “I thought she nicely balanced the ticket.”
A native of Massachusetts, Shukla graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law in 2007. Prior to that, she was a tenant organizer in Bronx, New York, then a plaintiff’s civil rights lawyer and at the Connecticut Fair Housing Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Shukla also worked at Davis Polk, a large firm in New York City, as a litigation associate.
While in Springfield, Shukla has prosecuted police corruption cases, drug and gun cases, and a terrorism case against Alex Ciccolo, an Adams man apparently wooed by online Islamic State group initiatives and convicted of plotting terror attacks at colleges and other public settings. Law enforcement thwarted those attacks, according to attorneys involved in the case.
Rollins, who has been the most out front in the race for U.S. attorney, got into an alleged “road rage” incident with another motorist at a mall parking lot on Christmas Eve. A witness said Rollins threatened to “write her a ticket” as both were attempting to leave the South Bay Mall that evening, according to Boston 25.
“Today is not the day to try me!” Rollins allegedly told competing motorist Katie Lawson, who filed a citizen’s complaint with the Boston Police Department.
A timeline to choose Lelling’s successor is not clear, but those familiar with the process believe it is being accelerated amid the Trump-Biden transition.
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