Attorney fired for antisemitic statements on social media, loses bar presidency

Updated 10/21/23 to include CBA statement

Several media outlets, including NBC Chicago, are reporting today that Sarah Chowdhury, who had been working as an attorney in the Office of the Illinois Comptroller, was fired Thursday after making antisemitic statements on line. Quoting rather extensively from the NBC Chicago article (which itself quotes from an earlier Reuters article) (it's not necessarily plagarism if you give proper attribution):

Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office contacted the employee about an hour and a half later, then fired her after she admitted to some of the comments, the office said.

“Comptroller Mendoza has zero tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech,” a statement from Mendoza’s office said.

According to Reuters, the employee fired is legal counsel Sarah Chowdhury, who made the comments in private direct messages with an Instagram account called Big Law Boiz.

“All you zionists will pay” and “Hitler should have eradicated all of you,” were among the remarks she allegedly made in the exchange, according to Reuters.

A screenshot of other messages she allegedly sent, which the Big Law Boiz account made public earlier Thursday, included, “Hopefully someone sends you anthrax or poison and you die a slow terrible death” and “Burn in hell.”

Chowdhury was also removed as president of the South Asian Bar Association as a consequence of these remarks. This statement, dated October 19, was posted on the SABA Executive Board page of its website:

The South Asian Bar Association of Chicago stands against hate, bigotry and bias in any form. Today, our board was made aware of antisemitic comments made by SABA Chicago's President toward the Jewish community through her personal social media account. Immediately upon learning of these statements, her role as president and membership in SABA-Chicago were terminated. We are deeply saddened and horrified by her words and their impact on our friends, families, and colleagues, and apologize for any harm they may have caused. Her words are not and will never be reflective of SABA Chicago. To be clear, SABA Chicago condemns such hateful rhetoric and is committed to supporting our communities and all those impacted by hate. We will not tolerate such behavior by any of our members.

As our nation responds to the rising hate violence we have seen at home, we endeavor to work together with other professional organizations to combat hate in all its forms—whether anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, anti-Muslim, white supremacy, or any other bigotry--and will always denounce such acts unequivocally and without qualification.

Our board, along with our newly installed President Maliha Siddiqui, remains committed to working with our partners in the legal community and beyond to ensure hate has no place in our profession or society. If you have any comments or concerns please reach out to info@sabachicago.org.

Chowdhury also had leadership roles with the Chicago Bar Association. This statement from the CBA was obtained from Facebook on October 21:

Chowdhury was licensed to practice law in 2018, according to ARDC.

Additional coverage of this story on CapitolFax.