Kapil Longani is the Senior Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and General Counsel for the State University of New York.
Kapil has had a distinguished career in public service, which he attributes to his immigrant parents who instilled in him a strong belief in the power of government to improve lives. His deep commitment to justice, fairness, and equity has taken him around the globe, from implementing South Africa's post-Apartheid Constitution, to serving as the minority staff's lead investigator for the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the U.S. House of Representatives’ most high profile and significant investigations, including the Flint water crisis, to serving 8.6 million New Yorkers as Chief Counsel to the Mayor of New York City.
In addition to serving as the solutions czar and top lawyer to the Mayor of New York City, Kapil has worked as Senior Counsel to Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings. Prior to his work in Congress, Kapil served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, where he prosecuted cases involving sexual assault, homicide, robbery, narcotics, and illegal firearms. He previously worked as a litigator in New York City at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Roger L. Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the Honorable Judge Richard Smoak of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Kapil has also taught as an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, and served as a Policing Project Fellow at NYU Law School.
Kapil holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and legal degrees from the University of Florida, Yale, and Oxford University.