DEEPAK RAJU focuses on international trade disputes, investment arbitration and public international law. He counsels sovereign States and corporations on State to State disputes, investor-State disputes and other disputes where one or more sovereigns are involved.
Recent engagements include:
- The State of Qatar (Qatar) in ongoing international litigation arising out of neighboring countries’ campaign of coercive economic measures against Qatar. 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.
- 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.
- Airbus, standing behind the European Union in the landmark Boeing-Airbus “large civil aircraft” subsidy disputes, the biggest and longest-running disputes in the WTO’s history.
- 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 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.
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 sports media broadcasting.
Deepak teaches a course on “Settlement of International Disputes,” covering the jurisprudence 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.