Adeel Mangi

For three consecutive years (2023-2025), Benchmark Litigation has named Adeel to its lists of the “Top 100 Trial Lawyers” in the U.S., which consists of “partners who have been venerated by peers and clients as being the best in breed at the nuanced practice of trial law . . . based on an intensive peer-and-client review." Benchmark Litigation also named Adeel as a Litigation Star for each of the last three years (2023-2025) and has noted that peers describe Adeel as “meticulous and relentless,” and “an unflappable whiz at everything he does.”

Adeel was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by President Biden. That nomination expired without a vote in the United States Senate after the 2024 presidential election. Adeel was the first Muslim-American ever nominated to a Circuit Court of Appeals. He wrote a letter to President Biden regarding his nomination that was described by one commentator as “required reading for anyone who wants to know how to deal with opponents of pluralism, diversity, and democracy.”

Adeel secured the largest jury verdict in the history of the Virginia court system with a $2 billion verdict after a seven-week jury trial in a case involving theft of trade secrets in the software industry—a case that is now on appeal. Adeel also secured the largest settlement with New York state in history in cases involving the death of a state prison inmate on the morning of closing arguments after a two-and-a-half week jury trial in the Southern District of New York. Adeel has represented other clients in a variety of industries in state and federal courts and arbitrations around the country across a range of subject matters including commercial contracts, false advertising, and consumer protection statutes.

Adeel's work has been recognized through numerous professional awards (see awards and accolades section). He has also litigated numerous high-profile civil rights cases (see pro bono section).

Adeel has litigated numerous high-profile civil rights cases. These included closely watched religious freedom cases that involved two different Muslim communities denied permission to build mosques in Bernards Township and Bayonne. These lawsuits were the subject of seven editorials in New Jersey’s largest newspaper and were covered extensively in the national press. Both cases eventually resulted in settlements under which the mosques were approved and the municipalities involved paid significant compensation to the affected Islamic groups. 

Adeel also tried a lawsuit involving the death of a mentally ill Black inmate who was alleged to have been killed by white prison guards in a retaliatory beating. The resulting landmark settlement included an unprecedented provision requiring New York to install a comprehensive network of video recording cameras and microphones throughout the Sullivan Correctional Facility. 

Adeel has also filed a series of amicus briefs on behalf of a coalition of cross-faith religious groups on issues including LGBTQ+ civil rights. 

Award highlights 

• Benchmark Litigation’s Top 100 Lawyers list, Litigation Star recognition, and Impact Case of the Year award
• National Law Journal’s General Litigation Trailblazers list
• The American Lawyer’s Litigators of the Week feature
• BTI Consulting Group’s Client Service All-Star distinction, recognizing attorneys who “stand above all the others in delivering the absolute best in client service.”
• American Civil Liberties Union—New Jersey’s Legal Leadership award
• Muslim Bar Association of New York Champions of Justice award 
• New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association Religious Liberty award and Landmark Litigation award
• South Asian Bar Association Trailblazer award and Pro Bono Attorney of the Year award

Early career accolades

• Benchmark Litigation Future Star recognition (2017-2022), 40 & Under Hot List (2016-2018)
• New York Law Journal’s Rising Star recognition (2014)
• Minority Corporate Counsel Association Rising Star list (2014)
• National Asian and Pacific American Bar Association's Best Lawyers Under 40 list (2014)
• Graduate of the Microsoft Litigation Group's highly prestigious Trial Advocacy Academy (2013)
  
  

 

Adeel received an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, where he was a Kennedy Memorial Scholar. He qualified as a British Barrister at Law as a Member of the Honorable Society of Lincoln's Inn, and holds a First Class Degree in Law from the University of Oxford (Pembroke College).

Adeel is admitted to practice in the following courts and jurisdictions:

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit; Second Circuit; Third Circuit; Fourth Circuit; Eighth Circuit; Ninth Circuit; Federal Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York; District of New Jersey
• New York

• New Jersey

Adeel is fluent in Urdu and is conversational in Hindi and Sindhi.