Esha Kamboj, attorney-advisor for Asia-Pacific with the U.S. Department of Commerce's Commercial Law Development Program, joins Rebeca Mosquera to share her professional journey from private legal practice to her current governmental role. She discusses the motivations behind her transition, the skills and experiences that shaped her approach to international arbitration, and the evolving ADR landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.

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Transcript:

Intro: Welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our International Arbitration Practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started. 

Rebeca: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Arbitral Insights. Today, I'll be your host. My name is Rebeca Mosquera, and I am an attorney at Reed Smith here in New York. And today, we have the pleasure of speaking with an incredible guest who has made remarkable strides in the world of international arbitration and ADR. Joining me is Esha Kamboj, attorney-advisor for the Asia-Pacific Region Team Commercial Law Development Program of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Esha, welcome to the podcast. 

Esha: Thanks so much for having me, Rebeca. Thank you for the lovely introduction. It's my pleasure to be here today. 

Rebeca: Well, let's dive in into things. And to kick things off, Esha, could you share a bit about your background and how you got into international arbitration? What was your practice focus when you first started? 

Esha: Yeah, of course. So my background really is in international arbitration and private practice for about seven years before moving over to the U.S. government. And how I got into international arbitration is, I think, an interesting story. I grew up in the Bay Area in California with immigrant parents from India, and I had kind of the pleasure of having a lot of family all over the world. And so each of, you know, whenever we would go on a family trip, it would be to visit a different family member in a different part of the world, whether it was in India or parts of Europe. So I really had the benefit of growing up with a very global experience in terms of meeting different types of people, learning about different cultures, foods, etc. And so I was always very much interested in kind of international policy, international law, and focused my undergrad degree in global studies. And then, you know, shortly thereafter, did the teaching assistant program in France via the French embassy. So I taught English in a high school just outside of Paris for about a year prior to going to law school. And, you know, I didn't really know too much about international arbitration before law school. There aren't a lot of lawyers in my family. But I learned a lot about it when I went to law school and had really focused my curriculum on international law. And it really stuck out to me as something that was incredibly interesting. You know, I wouldn't say a newer area of law, but definitely younger than many other practices. And really pursued firms during on-campus interviews that had dedicated international arbitration practices within the firm. So that kind of led me to Norton Rose Fulbright, where I did my summer internship as well as my first year in their New York office before I moved to Washington, D.C. And over the course of the next six or seven years, I did a lot of international arbitration, including investor state disputes, commercial arbitration, and a lot of large-scale kind of commercial litigation. So that was the private practice part of my career and how I kind of transitioned and got into international arbitration in the first place. 

Rebeca: That's fascinating, Esha. I mean, you've basically grown to some of the most, maybe we call it epicenters of where, you know, international arbitration develops today. So you established yourself in private practice, right? But what inspired you to make the transition to your current role? And was there something specific that drew you from private practice or the governmental side of, you know, international arbitration and ADR? 

Esha: Yeah. So, you know, as I mentioned, I've always been interested in foreign policy, specifically like public international law. But when I was at the firm, you know, I never really had much thought about transitioning into a government role. I think it really came to a head when I was in my sixth and seventh year when I was kind of a senior associate and I had to decide at that point if I wanted to pursue partnership at the firm, which would entail me starting to build my book of business, doing a lot of networking, doing a lot of training to be able to apply for that role, or if I wanted to kind of transition out of private practice and maybe try something new. I knew I've only ever been in private practice and so I didn't really have a lot of experience as to what other international arbitration adjacent jobs there could be. How I ended up at CLDP is kind of by happenstance, in fact. So while I was going through this, what should I do with my life? Should I move on to partnership in private practice or should I do something else? I was asked to actually be an expert for CLDP. So they asked me to do a short video on how to draft an International Arbitration Clause. And following that, I learned about this division, learned about the great work that they do, and was so interested in it. And that's kind of joined their office from there. 

Rebeca: So it all began with an arbitration clause, basically. 

Esha: Yep, it did. It sure did, as many things do. 

Rebeca: Very good. I mean, that's incredible. I really like hearing that. And obviously, it's always, to me, right, it's very interesting to hear about those pivotal moments in a career. I have done many myself as well. I mean, being an immigrant myself and having worked in-house and then in private practice, I understand how sometimes those pivotal moments just come out of the blue or based on a knowledge that you had. So, you know, it's just really, they shape the person that you are. And maybe sometimes we didn't quite understood certain training or certain things that we were going through until we get to that other position. And we're like, oh, now that's very useful, what I learned back then into the current role I am. And so speaking of transitions, how would you say your practice has evolved, right, from that private practice to the governmental role, especially now with the work that you do in the government focused on ADR? 

Esha: Sure. So let me give a brief background as to what my current role is and how ADR fits into that. As I said, I focus my private practice on international arbitration, representing states and the private parties and the private investors in international disputes. And what the Commercial Law Development Program really does is, and we've been around since 1992, just after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the purpose is to ameliorate or improve the commercial environment or legal environment for businesses worldwide. What that means depends on the region that you work in. So as I said, I work in the Asia-Pacific team. We focus on the Asia-Pacific region, and there are various other teams that focus on other regions. We've got the Latin America team. We've got a Middle East, North Africa team, Europe, Eurasia, Sub-Saharan Africa, et cetera. And the focus of what we're doing within each country depends on a multitude of things. One, what the country's needs are, and also what our foreign policy directives are from the State Department. Our whole point is we are a legal office that really helps with infrastructure development, specifically in the Asia-Pacific. So we are looking to really accelerate U.S. business investments in critical infrastructure in Asia and protect those investments, you know, through legal protections. So what we, and the kind of the purpose of this and why we do this in part is because there's a huge infrastructure gap all over the world and specifically in the Asia Pacific. And I'm talking critical infrastructure, port infrastructure, airports, you know, bridges, roads, et cetera. And that infrastructure gap, you know, these host governments are looking to fill very, very rapidly. And so they're seeking investment at a rapid rate. And for the last 10 years or so, the People's Republic of China, the PRC, has been very diligent about filling that investment gap. And so they've. Funneled billions and billions of dollars of financing into large-scale infrastructure projects all over the world via the Belt and Road Initiative. On our end, the U.S. government doesn't do that. We don't funnel billions of state-backed bank money into infrastructure projects in other countries. But what we do at the CLDP is we kind of make it so that private investment from U.S. Businesses can be funneled into these investment projects. And we do that by making sure that the legal landscape in the country that we're working in is conducive to attracting and protecting that investment. Often that takes the form of making sure the project finance mechanisms are in line with international best practices, you know, making sure that there's regulations like a public-private partnership law or, you know, good government contracting processes, again, that are in line with international best practices that will then attract U.S. Investment and also then ensure a return on investment for those U.S. Businesses that ar