Alisa Tiwari is an associate in Cohen Milstein’s Civil Rights & Employment practice. Alisa represents individuals in class action litigation challenging discrimination in employment and housing.
Prior to joining Cohen Milstein, Alisa was an associate at a nationally renowned plaintiffs-side firm that specializes in Supreme Court and appellate law. There, Alisa represented clients before federal and state appellate courts on a range of legal issues, such as police misconduct, administrative law, and forced arbitration. She served as lead counsel in multiple cases and argued appeals in the Seventh Circuit and the Second Circuit. In the U.S. Supreme Court, Alisa drafted both petition- and merits-stage briefs, including an amicus brief and two successful briefs in opposition.
Before entering private practice, Alisa clerked for the Honorable Michelle Friedland of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before that, she clerked for the Honorable Vince Chhabria of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Alisa also has the distinction of being named a Princeton Scholar in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI) Fellow. In this role, she earned a Master in Public Affairs and worked at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division, where she received the Assistant Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and a Certificate of Commendation.
Publications
- Disparate-Impact Liability for Policing, 129 YALE L.J. 252 (2019)
- Finality, Guidance Documents, and San Francisco’s Challenge to a Guidance Repeal, 36 YALE J. ON REG.: NOTICE & COMMENT (May 21, 2018) (with Ryan Yeh and Christine Kwon)
- Protests, Policing, and Crime: An Analysis of Evidence Regarding the Ferguson Effect, 27 J. PUB. & INT’L AFF. 115 (2016)
- District of Columbia
- Yale Law School, J.D., 2020
- Princeton University, M.P.A., 2020
- Princeton University, A.B., summa cum laude, 2014
Law Clerk, the Hon. Michelle Friedland, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2021 – 2022)
Law Clerk, the Hon. Vince Chhabria, U.S. District Court, District of Northern California (2020 – 2021)
SINSI Fellow, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York (2016 – 2017)
SINSI Fellow, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division (2015 – 2016)
Current Cases
DOD EEOC Age Discrimination Class Action
Schildgen v. Hegseth (EEOC): Cohen Milstein is representing overseas contractors who were removed from their positions during or after April 2020, when the Department of Defense deemed those over the age of 65 unfit for duty because of the risk of COVID-19 in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
Probationary Federal Employees Appeals
Probationary Federal Employees Appeals (M.S.P.B.): Cohen Milstein and co-counsel represent probationary federal employees in class action appeals against 20 federal government agencies for unlawfully terminating them from their respective jobs. The appellants include those who were terminated in mass layoffs by the Trump Administration. Allegedly, the government agencies failed to perform the mass terminations in accordance with proper procedures—namely, the requirements for conducting reductions in force (RIFs) of federal workforces. The appellants seek full restoration to their jobs and backpay on behalf of themselves and the putative classes they represent.
Amicus Briefs
Hare v. David S. Brown Enterprises, LTD.
Hare v. David S. Brown Enterprises, LTD. (Sup. Md.): On March 7, 2025, Cohen Milstein and the Public Justice Center submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of Maryland in support of petitioner Katrina Hare in Hare v. David S. Brown Enterprises, LTD. The case revolves around Katrina Hare, an elderly and disabled African American woman who was denied housing by a landlord because she did not meet its minimum income requirement of $47,700 a year, even though her Housing Choice Voucher would have covered all but $126 of the rent. The Circuit Court of Baltimore County ruled in favor of the landlord and claimed the denial was not discriminatory.