Alumni Talk: Dr Santanu Mukherjee

WTI's Alumnus Dr Santanu Mukherjee full biography

Dr Santanu Mukherjee is an Advocate, certified Commercial Mediator, founder and Head of Ex Lege Chambers. A boutique law office specialising in Intellectual Property Rights, International Trade (WTO) Policy and Technology laws, where he extensively practices transactional law, including multi-party licensing, policy advisory, dispute resolution and commercial mediation, including deal mediation.

Called to the Bar in India, he started as a litigator at the Calcutta High Court and later worked in various responsibilities spanning a career of 25 years. Before starting his law office in 2017, he had been Partner and Head of International Trade and Policy practice at Luthra and Luthra Law, a tier-1 law firm in India. Earlier he managed the Legal and Government Affairs of Qualcomm, US-based global telecom technology leader, as their Sr. Attorney for India and South Asia. Before that, he also worked at the South Centre in Geneva and as a Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Munich, Germany. In these roles he had been extensively engaged in multi-party negotiations at the WTO, WIPO, UNCTAD, ITU & UNFCCC, including in different Climate Change conferences.

A member of the Supreme Court Bar in India and the International Bar Association, he Chairs the Policy Section of the Indian National Bar Association. He also sits on the Executive Committee (India) of the International Chambers of Commerce and the National Committee on International Trade Policy of the Confederation of Indian Industries. Passionate about legal education, he regularly delivers seminars and mentors young professionals. He also does regular pro bono work on legal capacity-building and dispute resolution in his home state, West Bengal.

Santanu holds Doctor of Law (Ph.D.) and a Master of International Law and Economics (M.I.L.E.) from the World Trade Institute, Bern University, Switzerland. Had obtained his LL.B. from Calcutta University, India and was a British Chevening Scholar reading Corporate – Commercial laws at the University of Law, York, U.K. He has twice been Fellow of the Global Salzburg Seminar in Austria.