Brick Court Chambers

Vanshaj practises across all areas of commercial, international and competition law. He joined chambers as a tenant in September 2023 following the successful completion of pupillage, supervised by Hugo Leith, Malcolm Birdling and Tony Singla KC.

Before joining Brick Court Chambers, Vanshaj taught public international law at the University of Oxford. He completed his DPhil (Law) at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and an Indira Gandhi Scholar. Vanshaj also read for the BCL and the MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies at Oxford, obtaining a distinction in both. He holds a BA, LLB (Hons.) from the National Law School of India, where he was awarded the gold medal for Best Student Advocate. Vanshaj was also awarded the Young Scholar Award by the Asian Society for International Law in 2021.

During pupillage, Vanshaj assisted in a range of matters across Chambers’ areas of specialism, including contractual disputes concerning the sale of goods, financial regulation cases concerning securities and timeshares, a civil fraud claim, admiralty court proceedings concerning Greenpeace protestors, a CEDAW committee proceeding, various sanctions cases, and competition cases concerning pharmaceuticals, cryptocurrency and interchange fees.

Vanshaj is qualified as an advocate in India, and has trained under an Attorney-General for India, and an Advocate-General for Maharashtra. He speaks fluent Hindi and conversational Urdu.

Call: 2022

Professional Qualifications

Called to the Bar (England and Wales), 2022

Called to the Bar (India), 2017

Education

2019-2022: DPhil in Law (University of Oxford)

2018-2019: MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (University of Oxford) – Distinction

2017-2018: Bachelor of Civil Law (University of Oxford) – Distinction

2012-2017: BA, LLB (Hons.) (National Law School of India University)

Professional Experience

2023 - present: Tenant, Brick Court Chambers

2022 - 2023: Pupil, Brick Court Chambers

2020 - 2021: Graduate Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law and at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford

2018 - 2019: Research Assistant to Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford

Awards and Scholarships

Rhodes Scholar (India and Exeter, 2017)

Indira Gandhi Scholar (2019)

Asian Society of International Law Young Scholar Award (2021)

Prize for International Law of the Sea (Bachelor of Civil Law)

Prize for Best Thesis (MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies)

Gold Medal for Best Student Advocate (BA, LLB (Hons.))