Mr. Desai is an emerging scholar in the fields of law and foreign policy. He has written and published extensively in these arenas, with his writing focused on US-India relations, international security, sanctions enforcement, governance, and corruption.

Previously, he was an attorney at the law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington D.C. Prior to this, Mr. Desai was a Law and Security Fellow working at New America’s International Security Program (ISP). While there, he supported the ISP’s goal of providing evidence-based analysis of tough security challenges facing policymakers and the public. Additionally, before his time at New America, Mr. Desai spent two years on Capitol Hill, working as a Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Benghazi.

Formerly, Mr. Desai was an attorney at O’Melveny & Meyers LLP in Washington DC where his practice includes a wide range of litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. He has represented clients in front of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the Department of Commerce, and the House and Senate Ethics Committees. He has also litigated in state and federal court on both the trial and appellate levels. He conducts white collar, export control, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigations for individual and multinational clients around the world.

In addition to his private sector work, Mr. Desai has also worked extensively in the public sector. Over the past decade, he has garnered exhaustive experience on Capitol Hill, most recently serving as a legislative fellow at the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Border Security and International Law in the United States House of Representatives. In 2006, Mr. Desai was involved in efforts to help secure Congressional approval for the landmark US-India Civilian Nuclear Deal, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush that same year.

Mr. Desai is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Belfer Center’s India and South Asia Program at Harvard University. He is also member of the Aspen India Strategy Group and a Fellow at the Truman National Security Project. He teaches a popular course on US foreign policy toward South Asia at the Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Desai earned his Bachelors of Arts degree in International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa. In 2011, he earned joint public policy and law degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the Harvard Law School, from which he graduated magna cum laude.