Emily Chatterjee joined ACS in March 2008 as the first recipient of ACS's National Programs Law Fellowship. Prior to joining ACS, Emily practiced law from 2005-2008 at the Washington, DC office of Heller Ehrman LLP, where her practice encompassed a broad range of complex civil litigation matters, with an emphasis on antitrust litigation. In addition, Emily represented a pro bono client on death row in Virginia, as well as the family of Sister Dorothy Stang, an American nun who, in 2005, was brutally murdered in the ParĂ¡ region of Brazil while fighting to preserve the Amazonian rainforest. Due to Heller Ehrman's work on the Stang case, the firm was one of four law firms to receive the National Law Journal's 2006 Pro Bono Award.

While in law school, Emily worked as a student attorney at the MacArthur Justice Center, where she assisted in the representation of victims of police misconduct and plaintiffs seeking compensation for wrongful conviction. While there, she also assisted in drafting a Supreme Court amicus brief in Medellin v. Dretke on behalf of American citizens imprisoned abroad. Emily also worked as a legal intern for the U.S. Department of Justice in the Office of Special Investigations (Criminal Division), which brings denaturalization and deportation proceedings against Nazi war criminals residing illegally in the United States. Prior to law school, Emily was an Urban Fellow at the Office of Management and Budget of the City of New York, where she coordinated welfare reauthorization policy for the city.

Emily graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University with a B.A. in Political Science in 2001. She received her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 2005, where she received the Ann Watson Barber Outstanding Service Award. During law school, Emily was president of the University of Chicago Chapter of ACS.