The Hon. Rupa Ranga Puttagunta is an associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Puttagunta was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden on April 19, 2021. Her nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 2, 2022.
Prior to her appointment, Puttagunta was an administrative law judge for the District of Columbia Rental Housing Commission, a position to which she was named in 2019. Before that, she spent time as a sole practitioner at Ranga Law (2013 to 2019) and an attorney at Delaney McKinney (2012 to 2013). Her practice involved the representation of indigent criminal defendants as well as divorce, custody, child support, and civil protection order cases.
Puttagunta earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from Vassar College in 2002. She spent the next few years working as an economic analyst at CapAnalysis before completing a J.D. at the Ohio State University, Michael E. Moritz College of Law, in 2007. As a law student, Puttagunta clerked with the Franklin County Public Defender’s Office (2006) and the Federal Public Defender’s Office (2007). She also interned with the Hon. Jeffrey S. Sutton of the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit (2007).
After graduating from law school, Puttagunta began her legal career as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. William M. Jackson of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She served in that capacity until 2010, at which time she began clerking for multiple senior judges of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Her memberships have included the District of Columbia Bar Foundation Young Lawyers Network Leadership Council. She has also been involved with the Board of the Domestic Violence Resource Project and the National Association of Women Judges.