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Nikhil Pratap

Advocate · Attorney · Writer

I'm an advocate and attorney — admitted to practice in India and New York, with an LL.M. from Columbia — practising commercial litigation, arbitration and real estate.

I follow technology closely, and write about its legal side: data, regulation, and the constitutional questions that come with it.

NPPhoto
Nikhil Pratap
India and New York
Admitted to practice
Columbia LL.M.
James Kent Scholar
8+ years
In litigation, arbitration and real estate
Supreme Court of India
and the Orissa High Court

What I do

I act for Indian and international clients — from start-ups to developers and foreign parties — in the disputes and deals where the details decide the outcome.

Commercial litigation

Civil, commercial and constitutional disputes — from the first notice to the last appeal.

Arbitration

Domestic and international, mostly in mining, infrastructure, construction and real estate.

Real estate

Development agreements, leases, joint development, and buying and selling development-grade land.

Corporate advisory

Structuring for land and investment, shareholder disputes, share transfers, succession and company compliances.

See the practice →

Experience

2024 — now

Founder, Novo Legal

Independent litigation, arbitration and real-estate practice
2022 — 2024

Additional Standing Counsel

Government of Odisha · Orissa High Court
2021 — 2022

Appellate advocacy, U.S. Second Circuit

New York · Knight First Amendment Institute, Columbia
2017 — 2018

Judicial Law Clerk

Supreme Court of India, Justice A. K. Sikri

Full experience →

From the writing

Scroll.in

Carbolic Smoke Balls and Snake Oil

From an 1892 court case about a smoke ball that promised to cure the flu, to Patanjali — the long, strange history of selling cures that don't work.

Read on Scroll.in →

All the writing →

Careful arguments. Clear drafting. Writing that says what it means.

Get in touch →