Advocate Sindhura Natesha Polepalli specialises in legal consultancy, counsel, compliance and drafting in International Maritime Law.  She is experienced in maritime legislation drafting and international cooperation in the maritime sector.

 

She serves as the Maritime Legal Consultant to the Indian Maritime Administration. Under Maritime India Vision 2030, she is a National Committee Member tasked with reforming India’s Maritime Law and Policy.  Previously, she has served the Legal Office of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Hamburg) and the Chambers of Hon'ble Justice S. J. Kathawalla (Retd.) at the Bombay High Court. She has also worked on legal matters at the Supreme Court of India.

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She is a Visiting Faculty on International Maritime Laws for the Master of Arts (M.A.)/Master of Commerce (M.com)/Master of Sciences (M.Sc) programme at the University of Mumbai. She has appeared as a speaker, panelist and guest lecturer on ocean governance issues at international conferences, universities, and academies, such as the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, 34th Annual Military Law and Operations Conference of the US Indo-Pacific Command, 45th Annual Conference on Oceans Law and Policy, 5th Annual Alexander C. Cushing International Law Conference, University of Hamburg, Maharashtra National Law University, Gujarat National Law University, Gujarat Maritime University, Jindal Global Law School, among other venues. Her legal research has been published by the American Society of International Law, Indian Journal of International Law, Korea Institute for Maritime Strategy, Journal for Territorial and Maritime Studies, the Maritime Executive and Marine Insight, among others.

 

 

She earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) with distinction in International Maritime Law from IMO-International Maritime Law Institute (Malta), where she was awarded the Nippon Foundation Fellowship and the Maltese Government Prize for best performance in the Law of the Sea. She is a law graduate from the Government Law College (Mumbai) and has graduated from the Summer Academy of the International Foundation for the Law of the Sea, Rhodes Academy of Oceans Law and Policy, the Yeosu Academy of the Law of the Sea, Asian School of Cyber Laws, the Academy of the World Intellectual Property Organisation, among other advanced training.