Ronak D. Desai serves as Board Director and pro bono General Counsel to PSA. He is the global Chair of the Congressional Investigations practice at Paul Hastings LLP and also serves as the firmwide leader of its India practice. A seasoned attorney in international investigations, enforcement defense, and compliance matters, Ronak has extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. He advises clients on a broad range of complex investigative, compliance, crisis management, and public policy matters.

In addition to representing clients in front of the Executive and Legislative branches, Ronak routinely advises U.S. government officials on legal and policy issues related to U.S. Congress and the Indian subcontinent.

Prior to his time at Paul Hastings, Ronak served as counsel to a high-profile Select Committee on Capitol Hill and his prior experience also includes time with the Senate Foreign Relations and House Judiciary Committees.

Recognized by Chambers and Partners, Ronak has been named “rising star” and a top “40 under 40” attorney by The Global Investigations Review (2024), Law360 (2023), The Minority Corporate Counsel Association (2022), the American Bar Association (2021), and The National Law Journal (2020) for his work in the white-collar, Congressional investigations, and India spaces. In 2023, The American Lawyer recognized Ronak as its “Young Lawyer of the Year.”

In 2006, Ronak was part of efforts to help secure Congressional approval for the landmark US-India civilian nuclear deal.

Ronak is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Law & Security Fellow at New America, a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project, and an Asia 21 Leader at the Asia Society.

In 2016, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser appointed Ronak to her Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). He was recently confirmed by the DC City Council for a second term. Ronak also teaches a popular course on U.S. foreign policy toward South Asia at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is a regular contributor to a host of leading publications in both the United States and the Asia Pacific, including Forbes. From 2013-2017, Ronak was an Affiliate at the Belfer Center’s India and South Asia Program at Harvard University. He serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University.

Ronak earned his undergraduate degree from the Johns Hopkins University where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa, and concurrent public policy and law degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Law School from which he graduated magna cum laude and received the Dean’s Scholar Prize.