Surendran K. Pattel Age, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Surendran K. Pattel

• Surendran K. Pattel is an American-Indian politician and lawyer. On 1 January 2023, he was sworn in as judge of the 240th District Court in Fort Bend County, Texas.

• Surendran dropped out of school after completing high school and started working as a Beedi worker in a factory to financially support his family. Talking about it, in an interview, he said,
  

  As I hailed from a very poor family, we had to face severe financial challenges all along. I started working as a beedi roller when I was in Class 9 and also took up other manual jobs. After completing SSLC, I worked full time as a beedi worker. But that one year break changed my outlook about the future and the next year I joined the government college at Eleritattu for a pre-degree course.”

• Since Surendran had to continue working, he was debarred from appearing for BA examinations by Payyannur College’s authorities because of low attendance. He was later allowed to appear for the exams after he told the authorities that they could remove him should he fail to score good marks. In an interview, he said,
  

  I told them that if I do not score well, I will discontinue. But when the results came, I became the topper. So, the next year, they were so cooperative with me. I graduated from college as a topper.”

• From 1996 to 2004, he worked as a senior associate with P. Appukuttan & Associates in Hosdurg, Kerala. There, he handled cases related to civil and criminal cases, election law, matrimonial proceedings, and labour and industrial law.

• In 2005, Surendran and his wife Subha shifted to New Delhi, where he practised law in the Supreme Court till 2007.

• Surendran left the Supreme Court and moved to the United States of America in 2007 when his wife got employed as a nurse at a hospital there.

• He later worked in the US at Koger as a salesman.

• After the US government issued permanent residency status to Surendran and his family, he moved to Houston, Texas.

• Surendran appeared for the Bar Examination of the Texas state in 2009 and cleared it on his first attempt. He later scored 113 marks in the Multi-State Professional Responsibility Exam.

• He established PKS Law Firm, PLLC, in Texas in July 2015.

• He has worked as a lawyer in various associations like the Fort Bend Bar Association, Harris County Bar Association, State Bar College, and Exchange Club of Sugar Land.

• To become a Democratic Party’s nominee for the post of judge in the 2020 general elections for 505th District Court in Texas, Surendran contested the primary elections against Kali Morgan. He lost the elections by 8,897 votes.

• In 2022, the Democratic Party chose Surendran as its judge nominee for the general election for the 240th District Court in Fort Bend County, Texas. He started a campaign for the elections with the tagline “Firm on Law, Fair on Justice.” Through his campaign, he highlighted the shortfalls of the judiciary system in the US. In an interview, he said that during the election campaigning, his opponents passed racial remarks on him. Talking about it, he said,
  

  We decided not to respond to the negative campaign but to go to the people with our campaign slogans and our promises. However, during my interactions with media and people, I said that as a county which is one of the most diverse in the country in the world, it is natural to have diversity in accent, appearances and cultural differences among people and how can one be a good judge if you cannot tolerate the accent of another person.”

  Surendran emerged victorious in the general election held on 8 November 2022 and defeated the Republican Party candidate Edward Krenek with 194 votes and assumed the post of a judge on 1 January 2023.

  

  A Screengrab of Surendran K. Pattel taken during his swearing-in ceremony

• Surendran can Hindi, English, Malayali, and Sanskrit fluently.

• He has worked with The Malayalee Association of Greater Houston as its president.

• The National Academy of Family Law listed him as one of the top ten lawyers working in Texas in March 2022.

• The Santee and Associates Foundation presented Surendran with a community leadership award in June 2022.
  

  A picture of Surendran K. Pattel receiving the Community Leadership Award

• Surendran likes dogs. He has a pet Husky named Buddy.
  

  A photo of Surendran’s pet Husky Buddy