Nick S. Pujji 

Nick S. Pujji is the first turban-wearing Sikh full-equity partner at Dentons US LLP.

He was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where he developed his entrepreneurial spirit to become a lawyer. He moved to California in 2008 after graduating from Washington University School of Law. During law school, he was a legal fellow at the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division in Washington, D.C., where he worked under the special counsel for religious discrimination and voting rights issues.

He is active in a number of Sikh-related organizations and has partnered with the Sikh Coalition to protect victims of discrimination and continue his advocacy for diversity. “I’ve always enjoyed the strategy and business components of the law, but I also like the human aspect of it, which is why one of my focuses is in employment law,” Pujji said.

Since joining Dentons US LLP in 2016, his work involves high-profile business, trade secret, accessibility and wage-and-hour class action matters. He also serves as the co-head of the firm’s U.S. diversity and inclusion committee. He and his teams have earned numerous wins and favorable results for clients such as McDonald’s Corp., AllSaints, iHerb LLC, and many other retail clothing companies and furniture manufacturers.

He has defended against multiple employees against claims of wrongful termination, harassment, and race, gender, religious and disability discrimination. He has achieved results ranging from victory on summary judgment to highly discounted settlements.

In 2022, Pujji won a $21 million award for his venture capital client M13 Ventures Management LLC in a contentious breach of contract claim against a snack food provider. “After a six-day arbitration hearing, we were able to secure the judgment plus attorneys fees and interest,” he said.

In an ongoing wage and hour matter for iHerb LLC, he got the plaintiff to dismiss the class action for free after his team notified them of an arbitration agreement. The court granted a request to stay and ordered the plaintiff to be precluded from filing an opposition to any future motion to compel arbitration.

“Like all the matters that we handle, we try to take a step back and not only review strategy early on in the case, but also try to establish a working relationship with opposing counsel, which oftentimes allows us to achieve a more efficient and favorable result,” he said.

–Devon Belcher