Prateek Bagaria

Practice Areas

Biography

Prateek leads the practice at Singularity Legal. He has a decade long experience in international dispute resolution with strong focus on international arbitration, complex litigation, and global enforcement.

His experience includes advising clients in cross-border disputes before courts in India, Indonesia, Israel, Singapore, Turkey, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States of America; in international arbitrations under various rules like ICC, SIAC, LCIA, ICDR, FCC, LMAA, CAS, DIAC, JAMS and UNCITRAL; international mediations under the rules of SIMC and SMC; and in investment and tax treaty disputes. These involve a wide range of applicable laws, arising from energy, construction, maritime, M&A, sports, joint venture, shareholder and general commercial disputes.

Prateek has often acted for high profile clients and high stakes matters, and strives to cater to the overall needs of the clients. Keeping up with contemporary times where legal solutions include much more than the laws, he brings a unique depth and breadth of dispute resolution and commercial acumen, and assists his clients in achieving their international objectives through law, strategy, policy, business, and communications.

Prateek has been commended as “responsive and dynamic” and “very driven individual and a good lawyer who handles clients well”. Clients have also highlighted that he “leads an exceptional up-and-coming team with a commercial and highly strategic approach to complex international disputes. One of the best international disputes offerings in India.”

He has also been at the forefront of developing the litigation finance practice in India and spearheaded the foundation of the Indian Association for Litigation Finance. Under his tutelage, Singularity, since its inception, has tapped into the growing global trend towards adopting litigation finance. This has led Singularity to assist businesses in funding cases that are collectively worth more than $1.4 billion, and advise funders and financial institutions on structuring transactions in India. The Financial Times has lauded Singularity for moving the litigation finance market forward.

He also maintains a strong pro bono practice. Recently, he launched The 'Play True' initiative to create awareness on anti-doping laws in sports and provide pro-bono representation to underprivileged athletes in doping disputes. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Society for Construction Law, India – Young Leaders Group.

In Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific, Prateek is ranked as a “Future Star” and “Future Leader” in international arbitration and dispute resolution. He has also been recognised as India’s top disputes’ lawyer by Asian Legal Business and Forbes India Legal Powerlist. Under Prateek’s leadership, Singularity has been widely recognised as a market leader, and a trailblazer in dispute resolution and litigation finance.

He is a sought-after speaker and a prolific author on various aspects of international dispute resolution. His key works include “Enforcement of awards annulled at the seat of arbitration” (IBA Committee’s ‘Arbitration News’); “Why India should adopt a foreign investment law and what it should contain” (TDM India Special Report); “BIT Arbitration – What tax treaties can learn from past mistakes” (The 4th Meeting of the Vienna multi-stakeholder group on Improving Cross-border Dispute Resolution). In addition, Prateek has launched Expert Talk, an initiative to provide continued digital education to professionals through freely accessible seminars, webinars and a digital library of blogs, alerts and insights on dispute resolution and litigation finance. Under this initiative, he has authored several pieces on topics relevant to businesses and the ADR fraternity, such as “Affixing state liability for corruption in infrastructure sector”, “Illegality of India's ban on Chinese apps under international law”, “Sports arbitration- An Indian Overview”, “Litigation finance in India”, and “Beating Covid-19- Global Dispute Resolution and Risk-Management Solutions”.

Prateek is an Indian qualified lawyer and holds an LL.M in International Disputes Settlement from MIDS, a course jointly organised by University of Geneva and Graduate Institute. He is licensed to plead before courts in India and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

Publications

“Sports Arbitration in India” co-authored with Sanchit Suri & Rohit Shankar, published in ‘Specialized Arbitrations – Emerging International Trends & Practices’ (Thomson Reuters, 2022)

Litigation Finance in India: An overview. (Forbes India, 2021)

Enforcement of awards annulled at the seat of arbitration. (IBA Committee’s ‘Arbitration News’ in June 2017)

Why India should adopt a foreign investment law and what it should contain. (TDM India Special Report in 2017)

Affixing state liability for corruption in infrastructure sector. (Work-in progress conference: Issues in International Dispute Resolution, University of Missouri School of Law, 2017)

BIT Arbitration – What tax treaties can learn from past mistakes. (The 4th Meeting of the Vienna multistakeholder group on Improving Cross-border Dispute Resolution, 2017)