September Membership Meeting and One Hour General Credit CLE

American Muslims and the Legal System: Exploring Challenges

Zulfat Suara of the Tennessee Women's Political Caucus and the American Muslim Advisory Council and Samar Ali of Bass, Berry & Sims will discuss the legal challenges faced by Muslim men and women in America, particularly with respect to immigration, family law, and employment discrimination.

Zulfat Suara is originally from Nigeria but has made Tennessee her home.  In addition to being President of an accounting company that she founded in 2003, Zulfat is Treasurer of Tennessee Women’s Political Caucus and the Chair of the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC).  For the last three years, she served as Chair of BPW’s Women’s Day on the Hill and helped to coordinate a joint legislative day for seventeen women organizations, on issues affecting Tennessee Women and Children.  In 2010, she was honored by the Jackson ‘Sun and Jackson BPW as one of 20 Most Influential Women in West Tennessee for her community involvement and on October 26, 2015, she was inducted into the Tennessee Women Hall of Fame by the Tennessee Economic Council on Women.  Zulfat was also recently honored with the FBI's 2015 Director’s Community Leadership Award, given to community leaders by their area FBI office for having demonstrated outstanding contributions to their local communities through service. Zulfat currently works at Meharry Medical College.

Prior to joining Bass, Berry & Sims, Samar was an attorney at the Nashville law firm of Bone McAllester Norton PLLC. Her practice is comprised of assisting international businesses and individuals with cross-border investments, transactions, immigration, and compliance. 

Samar started her career practicing at Hogan Lovells US LLP and helped establish its first Middle Eastern presence in the United Arab Emirates before she returned to the United States to work as a White House Fellow in President Barack Obama's administration. There she worked closely with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and gained experience with bi-lateral negotiations on behalf of the U.S. Government. Samar later served as Assistant Commissioner of International Affairs to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and managed Tennessee's global relations where she developed Tennessee's five-year international strategy plan, which laid the framework for the state's international economic development footprint. Currently in addition to her legal practice, Samar serves as a Managing Director of the Lodestone Advisory Group, a consulting firm that specializes in internationalization, investment advisory and strategy, and is an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University School of Law, where she teaches courses on international relations and negotiations.

During her time at, and after graduating from law school, Samar served as a law clerk to the Honorable Gilbert S. Merritt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable Edwin Cameron, now of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. While an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, Samar was elected the school's first Arab-American Student Body President.