"It was truly an honor to have my efforts and contributions within the legal community recognized on such a scale,” remarked Pervin Taleyarkhan (pictured, pg 16) who in April 2021 featured among Crain’s "Notable Women in Law.” Crain Communications is one of the largest privately held business media publishers in the world, publishing news and content daily in 23 award winning media properties, reaching 10 million readers monthly, according to its website
www.crain.com
A legal counsel with Whirlpool Corporation, one of the world’s largest appliance manufacturers, headquartered in Michigan, USA, 34-year-old Taleyarkhan is the youngest member and only woman on Whirlpool’s global patent legal team, noted a press release from the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC). She handles matters such as patents, litigation, open-source software, international patent filings and third-party intellectual agreements. As an adjunct professor and director at the Intellectual Property (IP) Clinic at the Indiana University School of Law, she teaches and supervises law students in providing local businesses and inventors trademark and patent related legal advice and services that they may not otherwise be able to afford.
"The field of intellectual property law is focused on protecting the tangible creations of the human intellect,” noted Taleyarkhan when responding to queries from Parsiana. Since her college days she has been fascinated with "the spirit of innovation and all the good that can come out of strategic entry into the market with new ideas and inventions. Combined with my having a technical academic background (which is required in order to be licensed as a patent practitioner in the USA), patent law became a natural choice, and has since represented to me a rewarding field that allows me to combine my technical and legal skills.”
Pervin as also her sisters Manaz and Meher earned their engineering degrees from Purdue University where their father Rusi is a professor of nuclear engineering. While Pervin specialized in chemical engineering, Manaz pursued environmental engineering, and Meher mechanical engineering technology. After spending five years as an undergraduate researcher in cardiovascular engineering Pervin earned her juris doctorate/law degree from Indiana University where she was the editor-in-chief of the Indiana Health Law Review.
Pervin lends her expertise to several organizations in the law field too. She is a trustee of the Foundation for the Advancement of Diversity in IP Law which provides opportunities for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) students from underrepresented backgrounds to enter the patent law arena. She is affiliated with the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Michigan chapter where she serves on the board of directors as the treasurer. Earlier recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) with its "Star of the Year” and "Outstanding Leadership Contribution” awards, Pervin currently serves on the editorial boards for the ABA IP Law Section’s flagship publication, Landslide as also the ABA Journal, reportedly as the youngest member in the history of this 106-year-old publication. She had even served as editor-in-chief of The Young Lawyer published by ABA’s Young Lawyers Division (the world’s largest organization for attorneys).
Currently based in St Joseph in Michigan, Pervin extends her services to community organizations too. She is co-director of the Society of Scholars of Zoroastrianism, is a board member of the WZCC Chicago Chapter as also the Zoroastrian Association of Chicago, and trustee and secretary of the Zarathushti Entrepreneurship Development Foundation (ZEDF). Both the WZCC and ZEDF "stand for promoting the prosperity and spirit of entrepreneurship in our Zoroastrian community. It is an honor and privilege to help members of my own Zoroastrian community to grow and prosper,” stated Pervin who was conferred WZCC’s 2019 Outstanding Young Zarathushti Entrepreneur/Professional of the Year Award (see "Talent, technology and trust,” Parsiana, February 7-20, 2020) 15 years after Rusi was honored with the WZCC Outstanding Zarathushti Professional of the Year Award.
"Since childhood, I have been taught to give back to my community,” says Pervin who was born in Pennsylvania and completed her early education in Tennessee. "While growing up, my sisters and I would always be participating in some sort of community service, be it delivering phone books (alongside her father and mother Navaz) to our community, to raise money for local charities, volunteering in hospitals... As we grew up, this spirit of community service has stayed with me, even throughout law school days during which I had donated over 100 hours of time as a volunteer tax preparer for those in our community who cannot afford professional tax help.
"Despite living in an area of the USA that is fairly isolated from other Zoroastrians, my parents had instilled in us an understanding of our basic Zoroastrian customs and values, and an appreciation for the meaning of the prayers we recite. I feel our prayers stress the importance of action and putting into practice the powerful principles of humata, hukhta, hvarshta. This to me involves living a life of integrity, helping others, and contributing towards a brighter future for all.”
Fond of reading both fiction and non-fiction, Pervin is constantly endeavoring to learn new skills, her current hobbies being embroidery, painting and building mechanical models.