Zmarak Khan is the Deputy Chief Counsel at the United States Department of Commerce, Office of the General Counsel’s Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP).

In addition, Mr. Khan oversees CLDP’s Team for Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Mr. Khan manages a group of attorneys, program specialists, and experts who provide assistance to numerous governments on legal and regulatory reforms and economic development issues.

From Europe and Eurasia to South Asia, Mr. Khan has worked extensively with many countries to reform their legal infrastructure in order to create an enabling environment for improved trade and investment, and thereby economic growth. His work encompasses a broad scope of commercial law reform issues and technical assistance programs – including, inter alia, alternative dispute resolution, anti-corruption, intellectual property, procurement, judicial capacity, investment, corporate governance, project finance, and WTO accession. 

Before joining CLDP, Mr. Khan was an associate at DLA Piper where he practiced complex commercial litigation, national security and battlefield incident litigation, white collar and regulatory defense, and government contracts litigation, with a specific focus on representing and advising companies in conflict and post-conflict areas. Prior to that, Mr. Khan was a litigator at Cooley Godward Kronish where he represented clients in cases involving contract disputes, commercial transactions, real estate disputes, and regulatory issues for businesses.

Mr. Khan received his Juris Doctorate and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Cornell University Law School where he served as an Editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.