Vikram Raghavan

Background

About Vikram Raghavan

I am a lawyer at the World Bank where I specialize in international law. In over two decades at the Bank, I have worked on projects and operations in countries ranging from Afghanistan, Brazil, and Ethiopia, to México, India, Indonesia, and Philippines. I have also handled a diverse range of institutional, governance, legal, and policy matters. They include questions about the World Bank’s charter, membership, and development mandate; macro-fiscal and trade matters; and loan and policy conditionality. I have helped teams that work with refugees; assist territories that aren’t Bank member states; engage security forces; interact with armed groups; deal with military coups and political instability; respond to humanitarian crises; and work with the United Nations. I’ve also provided legal advice on economic sanctions, sovereign debt, expropriation issues, and contractual disputes. I am especially passionate about the Bank’s knowledge agenda. I was closely involved with the 2011 World Development Report on conflict, security, and development. More recently, I worked on the 2023 World Development Report on migration and refugees. I have also participated in legal and judicial reform projects and co-managed a technical assistance program on land issues. I frequently write, Tweet, and speak about the Bank’s evolution as an international financial institution. A few years ago, I received the Bretton Woods@75 award for my contributions to preserving the Bank’s history and institutional memory. Before the Bank, I was an associate at O’Melveny and Myers where I worked on banking, bankruptcy, and private equity transactions as well on several international arbitration and litigation matters. My undergraduate degree is from the National Law School of India University. I obtained a master’s in international law from NYU Law School where I was a Hauser Global Scholar. Legal education and career development are very important to me. I train and mentor many junior lawyers, and I regularly visit law schools to meet and motivate students. I am a visiting professor at the National Law University, Delhi. I co-founded Law and Other Things, a peer-reviewed legal blog run by students at the NALSAR Law School in Hyderabad. I am the author of Communications Law in India — a book cited by India's Supreme Court. I co-edited a volume on comparative constitutional law in South Asia. Finally, I edited George Gadbois’ iconic book: Supreme Court of India: The Beginnings. A philatelist and map collector, I am fascinated by art, sculpture, books, and book shops.