Deepak Raju

DEEPAK RAJU is an international disputes lawyer with over 10 years of professional experience. Deepak represents clients in complex international disputes involving an economic, commercial, or geopolitical dimension. He advises sovereign States, international organizations, and companies before a wide range of forums of international dispute settlement, including investment and commercial arbitral tribunals, panels and the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and the International Court of Justice.

In 2025, Lexology honored Deepak with its Trade & Customs “Client Choice Award — Global Elite Thought Leader,” as well as Arbitration “Future Leader.” Deepak was also included by the India Business Law Journal in its “International A-List 2025,” which identifies “the most recommended foreign lawyers for India-related legal matters, based on the collective views of private practice lawyers in India and in-house counsel around the world.”

Recent engagements include:

Public International Law:

• Representing Antigua & Barbuda before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in an advisory proceeding concerning climate change and its impacts.
• Representing the African Union before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), in an advisory proceeding concerning climate change and its effects on the marine environment.
• Advising a State on potential accession to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.
• Advising a State on a potential State-to-State arbitration under a multilateral treaty concerning the organization of an international event.

World Trade Organization:

• Representing the State of Qatar (Qatar) in an international litigation arising out of neighboring countries’ campaign of coercive economic measures. In one of these disputes at the WTO, Saudi Arabia – Protection of Intellectual Property Rights, Qatar became the first ever complainant to defeat a respondent’s invocation of the WTO’s national security exception in the 70-plus year history of the multilateral trade rules.
• Representing Airbus in the landmark Boeing-Airbus “large civil aircraft” subsidy disputes, the largest and longest-running disputes in the WTO’s history.
• Representing Qatar in defending a WTO dispute brought by the United Arab Emirates (the UAE). The UAE withdrew its complaint partway through the litigation without any adverse findings against Qatar.

Investor State Arbitration:

• Representing beIN Corporation, in an investment arbitration claiming more than US$1 billion against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for unlawfully forcing the Qatar-headquartered broadcaster out of the local market and supporting a notorious broadcast pirate known as beoutQ, including the coordination of a multi-faceted international strategy involving legal proceedings in numerous fora and government advocacy in the U.S. and EU.
• Advising a mining company in a potential investment arbitration against a government over denial of mining licenses.

Commercial Arbitration:

• Acting for a seller of photovoltaic modules in an SIAC arbitration brought by a buyer under a supply contract governed by Indian law.
• Acting for a European beverage manufacturer in an ICDR arbitration brought by a European vendor under a production agreement governed by New York law. The dispute involved questions of conformity of goods to contractual requirements and industry standards.
• Advising a major producer of nuclear power plants in a series of pre-arbitral disputes with commercial partners under power purchase agreements and EPC contracts, and governments.
• Acting for a Tanzanian producer of agricultural commodities in a pre-arbitral dispute with an Indian buyer under a sales contract, over unpaid invoices.

In the context of his engagements, Deepak has had the opportunity to work with a varied set of clients, including governments and commercial stakeholders from a range of industries such as agriculture, aviation, steel and aluminium, solar panels and renewable energy, sports media broadcasting, and the extractive industries.

Deepak teaches a course on “Settlement of International Disputes,” covering the practice of the International Court of Justice, Law of the Sea Tribunals, WTO tribunals, investment arbitral tribunals, and State-to-State arbitral tribunals at the National University of Juridical Sciences, India.

Deepak started his career as an associate at the Mumbai office of one of India’s biggest commercial law firms. There, he advised clients on various aspects of financial market regulation. Subsequently, he moved to a firm in New Delhi focusing on International Economic Law. He also worked as an intern at the Appellate Body of the WTO, providing the Appellate Body with research assistance on various aspects of WTO law.

As a student, Deepak had the opportunity to represent two countries, India and the United Kingdom, at the international rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition, once finishing as a quarter finalist and the other time being listed among the top ten oralists. He was an octa-finalist and recipient of two Honorable Mentions at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot.