Sumbal Mahmud, Minnesota Disability Law Center of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid

Sumbal Mahmud is an attorney with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s Minnesota Disability Law Center, where she combines her passion for human rights advocacy with her commitment to serving underrepresented communities. With more than two decades of legal experience, she has built a distinguished career spanning private practice, government service, and nonprofit advocacy.

Mahmud previously served as an administrative law judge in the Minnesota Department of Human Services and as an asylum officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Her private sector experience includes working as in-house counsel for Best Buy and as an associate attorney. Throughout her career, she has maintained an unwavering commitment to pro bono work and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Her extensive leadership within bar associations demonstrates her dedication to the legal profession. Mahmud served as past president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and spent six years on the national board of NAPABA. She also served on the Minnesota State Bar Association Board of Governors, where she chaired the Judiciary Committee and represented MSBA in the American Bar Association.

At the national level, Mahmud has served more than fourteen years with the American Bar Association through various presidential appointments. She currently serves on the Standing Committee on Public Education and previously served on the Council for Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Educational Pipeline and the Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice. She also served as an ambassador in the ABA Business Law Section and is currently a member of the ABA House of Delegates.

Her international perspective was shaped by internships and work at the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands, as well as experience with the Minnesota Senate.

Mahmud earned her law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School and her bachelor’s degree in political science and history from Hamline University.