Santosh Pai

Santosh is a Partner with Link Legal with 18 years of work experience.

He is a graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru enrolled as an Advocate in India and qualified as a Solicitor (NP) with the Law Society of England & Wales. He holds a Masters’ degree in Law, an MBA and has also completed an executive program on Negotiation and Leadership at the Harvard Law School. He is currently involved in the EU-India corridor and divides his time between Geneva and New Delhi.

His cross-border work experience in M&A, joint ventures, greenfield investments, technical collaborations and policy research spans across India, China, Europe and South-East Asia. Other areas of interest include cross-cultural negotiations, global supply chains, geopolitics, board governance and public speaking.

He founded the India-China practice group in 2010 and is one of the few Indian lawyers who can speak Mandarin Chinese. He is a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Core Group on China, Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi and has contributed to various academic publications.

Santosh has been quoted by the New York Times, Reuters, Forbes, Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, The Economic Times, The Wire, The Hindu, The Week, Hindustan Times, People’s Daily, Business Line, Mint, Telegraph and Sputnik. He also appears on various Indian TV news channels as a commentator.

He offers a course at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong and chairs the regional board of an international environmental NGO.