{"id":5535,"date":"2026-03-12T16:54:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/?p=5535"},"modified":"2026-03-13T14:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:10:14","slug":"faisal-siddiqui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/faisal-siddiqui\/","title":{"rendered":"Faisal Siddiqui: From Litigation to Integrity"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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by adam stone<\/strong><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"\"Since graduating from UBalt Law in 1998, Faisal Siddiqui has established himself in the realm of integrity and international risk management.<\/span><\/p>

Early in his career, he worked at the Export-Import Bank (EXIM), and today he serves as Global Head of Business Integrity at the World Bank Group (WBG), focusing on the WBG\u2019s private sector projects in emerging markets.<\/p>

\u201cMy primary role is to mitigate certain non-financial risks in those projects,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll look at corruption risk. We\u2019ll look at politically exposed persons, at money laundering and terrorist financing risk, and economic sanctions risk.\u201d<\/p>

In safeguarding projects from these hazards, Siddiqui also helps the WBG itself to avoid risk. \u201cThe WBG tends to have an anchoring effect, where other investors will get comfortable\u00a0because<\/em>\u00a0we\u2019re involved,\u201d he says. As such, \u201cour reputation is our chief commodity.\u201d<\/p>

All that risk mitigation comes with built-in variety in terms of the different kinds of lawyering involved. There are anti-corruption laws, economic sanctions laws, and civil and criminal codes across the globe.<\/p>

There\u2019s variety in the staff, too. \u201cThe thing I like the most about my job is the diversity of people. You walk down the hall, and everyone is from a different place,\u201d Siddiqui says. \u201cOn my team, I have people from Kyrgyz Republic and The Gambia. The diversity of personal and professional backgrounds is the engine that keeps this place running.\u201d<\/p>

Siddiqui\u2019s work likewise spans a broad geography. \u201cOn a given day, I could be working on a large infrastructure project in South America, and by the evening be working on a private equity fund in the Middle East,\u201d Siddiqui says.<\/p>

He\u2019ll often visit those places in person. \u201cI\u2019ve been everywhere from Bogota to Manila. I\u2019ve actually been to St. Lucia and Barbados\u00a0on business<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 and no one believes me!\u201d he jokes. \u201cI made it to the beach and I swam with turtles in Barbados, but that was extra.\u201d<\/p>

Those in-person experiences make the work more real. \u201cI like meeting the people on the ground, learning about the actual impact of our projects,\u201d Siddiqui says. \u201cIt helps to keep me connected to all the development work that we\u2019re doing, and I can work directly with clients to improve things, like their tax practices or their anti-corruption compliance regimes.\u201d<\/p>

From litigation to compliance<\/strong><\/p>

UBalt Law Prof. Mortimer (Tim) Sellers recalls Siddiqui as a student who was driven toward success. \u201cHe brought to his work intellectual curiosity, persistence, the desire to work hard and to do something good for the world,\u201d Sellers says. \u201cWe\u2019ve watched his career with great pride and satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>

Siddiqui came to UBalt Law uncertain about what direction he would take, \u201cbut in my last year I took the litigation clinic, and I just absolutely fell in love with it,\u201d he says.<\/p>

\u201cThe options to do litigation right after law school are not many, and I wasn\u2019t sure a purely criminal litigation role, such as a public defender or state\u2019s attorney, was right for me.\u00a0So I chose the Air Force JAG Corps,\u201d he says. \u201cThey just throw you in the courtroom, and you get a lot of litigation experience up front.\u201d<\/p>

He ended up doing court-martial work, as well as torts and employment law litigation. After four years of that, he went to a law firm to continue honing his skills in litigation. From there, he moved on to tackle global litigation for EXIM Bank.<\/p>

It was at EXIM Bank that one of his general counsels, Howard Schweitzer, spotted his potential and encouraged him to reach for more. Siddiqui\u2019s mentor urged him to take a promotion that would leverage the full breadth of his intellectual resources.<\/p>

Siddiqui recalls being reluctant to make the leap. \u201cI had a pretty narrow view of what I wanted to be. I loved just being the guy that everyone came to ask about litigation,\u201d he says. But his mentor gave him the push he needed.<\/p>

In hindsight, it turned out to be exactly the right decision. \u201cThat was a critical decision, because ever since then I\u2019ve had managerial roles, up to leading a group of 50 people,\u201d Siddiqui says. \u201cThat would never have happened had I not had that key mentorship from Howard.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by adam stone Since graduating from UBalt Law in 1998, Faisal Siddiqui has established himself in the realm of integrity and international risk management. Early in his career, he worked at the Export-Import Bank (EXIM), and today he serves as Global Head of Business Integrity at the World Bank Group (WBG), focusing on the WBG\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5535"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5574,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5535\/revisions\/5574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}