Dr. Menaka Guruswamy, a Senior Advocate designated by the Supreme Court of India in 2019, focuses on complex litigation cases.
In her private law practice, Dr Guruswamy practices commercial and criminal law. She acts as lead counsel in high-value commercial cases, including those involving government tenders, bankruptcy law, and securities law. Guruswamy regularly represents large multinational entities and public sector companies, including Reliance Industries, Bloomberg, the Modi group of companies, Unitech and 3C Shelters. She also sits as a Director on the Board of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi.
Dr Guruswamy acts as an Indian law expert in courts outside India, including most recently in the Devas v. Air India case before the courts in Montreal, Canada. She has also been retained by foreign law firms to advice on FCPA and money laundering cases against their clients.
She has successfully appeared and advised on multiple cases involving allegations of money laundering and corruption law in India. These include the Delhi Excise case, involving allegations of manipulation of alcohol pricing by the ruling State government; the Augusta Westland helicopters case that involved alleged corrupt practices in defence procurement, where she represented the prime accused; and advice to accused persons in the 2G spectrum case. She also argued before the Indian Supreme Court in Vijay Madanlal Chaudhary, the constitutional challenge to India’s money laundering law.
She also represents both the public and private corporations in appeals against arbitral awards before the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India and is also engaged to argue before Arbitral Tribunals. Dr Guruswamy has an active sports law practice, representing 35 state associations and 700 district associations in a key football litigation at the Supreme Court of India concerning suspension of the All India Football Association by FIFA.
Dr Guruswamy is presently a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, Oxford, UK. She is a former Rhodes Scholar, having secured a Doctorate in Law (D.Phil.) and Masters in Law (BCL) from Oxford University. She has a Masters in Law (LL.M) from Harvard Law School and a BA LLB. (Hons.) from the National Law School of India, Bangalore.
Dr Guruswamy started her law practice in 1997 in the Chambers of Mr. Ashok H. Desai, the then Attorney General of India. She later practiced mergers and acquisitions law
in New York as an associate at Davis, Polk & Wardwell. She is admitted to the bars in New York and in India.
In her public law practice, Guruswamy has argued in some of the most complex and high-profile disputes before the Supreme Court of India. This includes: TSR Subramanian v Union of India, where the Supreme Court mandated fixed tenure in the bureaucracy; and Navtej Singh Johar v Union of India, where the Supreme Court overturned Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.
In 2023, she was awarded the University of Virginia’s Jefferson Medal in Law, the University’s highest honour and its equivalent of an honorary degree. She was the first non-American to receive this honour. In 2019, she was on Foreign Policy magazine’s list of 100 most influential Global Thinkers and TIME Magazine’s List of 100 Most Influential People of the Year.
She has written in the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, the American Journal of International Law, and The Indian Express.
She was co-editor of ‘Founding Moments in Constitutionalism’ (Bloomsbury, 2019). Dr Guruswamy worked at the United Nations Development Fund (2004-2006). She has advised on law making in South Sudan for UNICEF and constitution-making in Nepal.
She taught at the New York University School of Law (2006). Since then, Dr Guruswamy has held visiting academic positions at leading universities. In 2016 she was a Gruber Scholar and Lecturer at Yale Law School and a Fellow at the Wissenschaftkolleg (Institute of Advanced Studies), Berlin. From 2017-2019, she was the B.R. Ambedkar Research Scholar and Lecturer at Columbia Law School.
She also served as Distinguished Visiting Faculty at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where she delivered the 2018 David B. Goodman Lecture. In June 2024, she delivered the 2024 Charles L. Dubin Memorial Lecture in memory of Charles L. Dubin, the Late Chief Justice of Ontario, Canada.
As a Strategic Adviser to DeepStrat she brings a wealth of scholarship, experience and expertise on constitutional, technology, civil and criminal law besides her contribution to law making and public policy.
