Our Team

Archana Kotecha

Founder & CEO

  • Archana is a UK qualified barrister and London School of Economics graduate who started her career practicing corporate law with KPMG then with DLA Piper. After 7 years as a corporate lawyer, Archana joined the UN Refugee Agency’s Legal Protection Team in London and subsequently the Immigration Advisory Service and Stop Trafficking UK in London. Archana’s expertise includes developing Operational Guidelines for Business on Remediation of Human Rights Grievances, in partnership with the IOM, developing a pilot programme for a non-judicial worker grievance mechanism for businesses in Malaysia, and conducting a scoping study on strengthening the strategic litigation ecosystem to tackle forced labour, human trafficking, and exploitation in supply chains in South East Asia.

    Before founding The Remedy Project in 2021, Archana was the Head of Legal and Asian Region Director for Liberty Shared in Hong Kong. Disrupting the activities of traffickers by improving modern slavery’s visibility within financial institutions, educating NGOs and lawyers on anti-trafficking legal frameworks and victim identification have also been key aspects of Archana’s work. This included experience such as conducting an industry-focused analysis of Malaysia’s palm oil industry, with a specific focus on the industry’s governance and investment framework, relevant labour laws that apply to migrant workers in the industry, and various dispute resolution mechanisms, and conducting a study on pathways to compensation for victims of trafficking under anti-trafficking legal frameworks in Thailand and Cambodia. In 2017, Archana was named as one of the top ten innovative lawyers in Asia Pacific by the Financial Times Asia.

    Archana draws upon her extensive experience and network in the space of counter-exploitation and her corporate law background to deliver on the aims and objects of The Remedy Project.

Carmel Laurino

COO

  • Carmel has over a decade of experience in social impact and entrepreneurship across agriculture, labour, migration, and rural development sectors. She’s experienced in managing non-profit organisations, leading teams, and catalysing mission-driven impact.

    Before joining The Remedy Project, Carmel was the Managing Director of Honest Jobs, an early stage incubator making strategic investments to transform inefficient and exploitative labour migration markets to eliminate conditions of forced labour across Asia. Carmel is also the founder of Kalsada Coffee, a social enterprise that has become one of the largest exporters of Philippine specialty coffee. Kalsada pioneered the introduction of Philippine-origin coffees to the export market and continues to partner with rural farming communities to invest in its infrastructure. Carmel is passionate about enabling teams, solving problems and creating high impact solutions.

    Carmel received her MS in Strategic Design & Management from Parsons The New School for Design and her BA in International Studies & Political Science from the University of Washington.

David Zhang

Special Advisor

  • David has over a decade of experience practicing law in Asia. Since joining The Remedy Project, David has focused on assisting with the development of multi-stakeholder programs to more effectively resolve employer-worker disputes.Prior to joining The Remedy Project, David was a Ropes & Gray partner based in the Shanghai and Hong Kong offices. He advised multinational clients with developing their international compliance programs and risk mitigation strategies, designing and implementing compliance due diligence programs, and conducting compliance investigations. David’s previous pro bono work also includes helping to develop legal support programs for Hong Kong domestic workers and working to overturn wrongful criminal convictions using DNA evidence. David was ranked by Chambers Global as an “Up and Coming” partner in 2020. David is qualified to practice law in New York and graduated from The George Washington University Law School with a Juris Doctorate degree.

Jacob Bogart

Senior Associate

  • Jacob is a New York-qualified lawyer with over four years of experience in the field of responsible business conduct, working with non-governmental organizations, companies, and international organizations as a lawyer and consultant primarily in Southeast Asia. In his career, Jacob has worked at the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), Fortify Rights, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, and the World Food Programme.

    The author of a number of reports on social sustainability issues, Jacob brings extensive experience conducting research, impact assessments, and investigations.

    Jacob graduated with honors from Columbia Law School and a B.A. summa cum laude from The Ohio State University. He is the recipient of over a dozen scholarships, fellowships, and awards, including the Luce Scholarship, through which he worked from 2014 to 2015 at the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand.

Rhea Goyal

Associate

  • Rhea is an Indian qualified lawyer and a human rights researcher with over three years of experience working with international organisations, non-governmental organisations, companies and individuals. During her time in India, Rhea practiced in trial and appellate courts in New Delhi where she advised and represented clients on a range of issues across civil and criminal law. She also led accountability initiatives to seek justice for survivors of human rights violations.

    Rhea obtained an LL.M in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute in 2022 with a focus on protection of vulnerable groups. In her career, Rhea has worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, International Organisation for Migration, and ECPAT International across countries in Europe and South-East Asia.

    Rhea completed her B.A.,LL.B (Hons.) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata in 2018.

Vidhi Mago

Junior Associate

  • Vidhi holds a Global Law LLB degree from Queen Mary University of London, and a Master of Laws in Human Rights from the University of Hong Kong, for which she was the awarded the Wong Family Scholarship. She has conducted legal research on a wide array of topics including Climate Migration and Statelessness, LGBTQIA rights, and the role of cultural relativism on the rights of South Asian women. In the UK, she was an active member of the Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre where she designed, developed and conducted various Street Law programmes.