About Ishan
Ishan Dave built his academic foundation at Boston University, where he earned a B.A. in Philosophy, Political Science and Psychology in 2012. He went on to attend the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and received his J.D. in 2015. The sequence of degrees maps to a steady progression from broad liberal arts training into concentrated legal study.
His early legal work began in New York and California. As a legal intern in 2009 at the Law Offices of Karl J. Stoecker, he gained exposure to day-to-day client work and case preparation. That work was followed by a judicial externship in the Southern District of New York in 2011, an experience that offered a view of federal courtroom procedure and judicial decisionmaking. In 2013 he served as an intern for Compassion Over Killing and in 2014 he was a judicial extern at the Los Angeles office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
After law school, Dave entered private practice. He joined Capstone Law as an associate in 2016. The following year he moved to Derek T. Smith Law Group, P.C., where he took on the role of associate lawyer. Those positions built on his earlier public-sector and clerkship experiences and involved litigation tasks typical for early-career associates.
His professional memberships reflect both local and topic-specific involvements. Since 2017 he has held membership in the State Bar of New York and the State Bar of New Jersey, and he has been a member of the National Employment Lawyers Association, New York, beginning the same year. Earlier, between 2016 and 2018, he held memberships in the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the Beverly Hills Bar Association, and the Santa Monica Bar Association.
Dave is admitted to practice in multiple jurisdictions. His admissions include California and the Ninth Circuit, as well as the state bars of New York and New Jersey. That credentialing supports practice on both state and federal matters across more than one region.
Colleagues describe his path as one that moves from courtroom observation to active representation. He has experience in litigation and in handling matters that intersect with employment law, informed by his time at the EEOC and his involvement with employment-focused professional groups. He currently practices at Derek Smith Law Group, where he concentrates on employment law and related civil litigation.
