Raj R. Marphatia was an Indian-born American lawyer and a partner at the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray, where he practiced business and private funds law. In 1987 he became the first non-white president of the Harvard Law Review, the student-edited journal of Harvard Law School. He died of cancer in May 2020 at his home in Palo Alto, California, United States.
Background
Raj R. Marphatia was born on June 17, 1959, in Bombay, India, a city now known as Mumbai. He was the older of two children and the only son of Ravi Marphatia, a chemical engineer, and Chandrakala Mehta Marphatia, who had trained as a librarian and was involved in volunteer work and charity while raising the family. He grew up in Bombay, then the capital of Bombay State, a western Indian state that was divided into Maharashtra and Gujarat in 1960.
At seventeen he travelled to the United States on a Rotary scholarship as an exchange student and spent time in Iowa, where he developed an enthusiasm for baseball and American life. Rotary exchange programs place secondary school students with host families abroad. He remained in the United States after the exchange and later attended Harvard on a full scholarship.
Education
Marphatia attended Harvard College on a full scholarship and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in economics, although he later told his family he wished he had studied art history. Harvard College, the undergraduate college of Harvard University, was founded in 1636 and is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States.
After Harvard he earned a Master of Accounting from Northeastern University in Boston. Northeastern was founded in 1898 as the Evening Institute for Younger Men, a program started by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association to offer evening instruction to young men. It became Northeastern College in 1916 and gained university status in 1922.
Marphatia entered Harvard Law School in 1985 and received his Juris Doctor in 1988. The Harvard Law Review, the school's journal, first appeared in 1887 and is entirely edited by students, with its editorial decisions made by roughly ninety student editors. Serving as president of the Review in 1987 and 1988 gave him a leading student role within one of the most prominent law journals in the United States.
Career
Before entering law school, Marphatia worked at the accounting firm then known as Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. The firm was one of the large accounting partnerships of its era and joined with KMG in 1987 to form KPMG Peat Marwick.
After Harvard Law School, he spent a year working with a judge in Puerto Rico. In 1989 he joined Ropes & Gray in Boston and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar that year. The firm had been founded in Boston in 1865 by John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, both Harvard Law graduates. By the 1960s it had grown to nearly seventy-five attorneys, and it later developed into an international practice with more than 1,500 lawyers.
At Ropes & Gray he practiced business law, with a focus on asset management, mergers and acquisitions, and private funds. The Harvard Crimson described him as a nationally recognized private funds lawyer. He rose to partner and later senior partner, and he took part in the firm's diversity committee and pro bono program. In 2011 he moved to the firm's East Palo Alto offices in the period when his wife joined the Stanford University faculty.
Marphatia died of cancer on May 8, 2020, at his home in Palo Alto, California, United States, while still a partner at the firm.
Achievements
Became the first non-white person elected president of the Harvard Law Review, serving from 1987 to 1988. The Review is an entirely student-edited journal, and its president is chosen from among the student editors, so his election marked a first for the journal.
Helped develop the private funds practice at Ropes & Gray into a national practice, according to tributes from colleagues and family. Private funds are pooled investment vehicles that operate outside public markets, and advising them is a specialized area of finance law.
Personality
Colleagues and friends described Marphatia as humble, modest, and kind. Harvard Crimson coverage of his death quoted a colleague who described him as methodical, thoughtful, and analytical, and a friend recalled a gently understated sharp intellect.
Quotes from others about the person
Ropes & Gray partner Loretta Richard said that he would 'never tell you' about his Law Review achievement because he was 'incredibly modest.'
Interests
Marphatia hosted a weekly poker night at his home while he worked in the Ropes & Gray Boston office. He developed an enthusiasm for baseball during his time as an exchange student in Iowa. He later told his family he wished he had studied art history.
Connections
Marphatia met Nalini Ambady, a Stanford University professor and social psychologist, while he was at Harvard. She became his wife, and she died before him. He was survived by their daughters, Maya Ambady and Leena Ambady, and by his partner, Carolyn Hayes, who is also a lawyer.
His parents were Ravi Marphatia and Chandrakala Marphatia. His sister, Mona, and her husband, Asit Khandwala, were among his surviving relatives, as were his father-in-law, Shanker Ambady, and his nieces, Anoushka and Nikita Khandwala.
Father:
Ravi Marphatia
A chemical engineer.
Mother:
Chandrakala Marphatia
Trained as a librarian and was involved in volunteer work and charity while raising her children.
Wife:
Nalini Ambady
Stanford University professor and expert in social psychology; Marphatia met her while he was at Harvard.
