LISTEN TO THE Keynote Speakers
Justice Dipak Misra
Presentation of bouquet of profiles of distinguished lawyers, at first glance, may seem to be quite easy buy when one reads them with studied keenness and a sense of objective understanding, the nuanced analysis of each individual protagonist in the field of law makes one feel that he is in the company of people who have acted with immense-rigour and passionate concern for development of law and als to ensure that the cause of justice is served. they remind all how they have served the majesty of law with consistency.
The profession of law commands a noble bearing that is both individualistic and representative of collective values that the lawyers as a community enjoy. Alexis de Tocqueville reminds:
“The profession of law is the only aristocratic element which can be amalgamated without violence with the natural elements of democracy, and which can be advantageously and permanently combined with them.”
Justice A. K. Sikri
Justice A K Sikri is a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. He has an excellent academic record. Justice Sikri conducted cases of all types with specialization in Arbitration and Commercial matters, Constitutional cases and Labour – Service Matters. He was Counsel for numerous Public Sector Undertakings, Banks & Financial Institutions, Educational Institutions, and various Private Sector Corporations. Justice Sikri was also part-time lecturer in Campus Law Centre, Delhi University (1984-89); Vice-President, Delhi High Court Bar Association in 1994-95; Member of the Governing Body of various colleges from time to time; Designated as Senior Advocate by Delhi High Court on September 30, 1997; and Appointed as Judge of Delhi High Court on July 7, 1999. As a Judge, Justice Sikri has dealt with all kinds of jurisdictions. He has sat on the Commercial Bench, IPR Bench, and Insolvency Bench for a number of years and gave many landmark judgments.
Justice Sikri was chosen as one of the 50 most influential persons in Intellectual Property in the world by a leading prestigious international organization for the year 2007 in recognition to his contribution to the growth of Intellectual Property Laws through his judgments.
Justice Sikri became the Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on October 10, 2011 and was elevated as the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 23, 2012. Justice Sikri was elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court of India on April 12, 2013.
LISTEN TO THE Event Speakers
Justice Dipak Misra
Presentation of bouquet of profiles of distinguished lawyers, at first glance, may seem to be quite easy buy when one reads them with studied keenness and a sense of objective understanding, the nuanced analysis of each individual protagonist in the field of law makes one feel that he is in the company of people who have acted with immense-rigour and passionate concern for development of law and als to ensure that the cause of justice is served. they remind all how they have served the majesty of law with consistency.
The profession of law commands a noble bearing that is both individualistic and representative of collective values that the lawyers as a community enjoy. Alexis de Tocqueville reminds:
“The profession of law is the only aristocratic element which can be amalgamated without violence with the natural elements of democracy, and which can be advantageously and permanently combined with them.”
Dr. Lalit Bhasin
Dr. Lalit Bhasin is a President of Society of Indian Law Firms. A veteran in the legal space with over 60 years in practicing law, Dr Lalit Bhasin is Immediate Past President, The Bar Association of India.
He is the President at Society of Indian Law Firms, Dr Lalit Bhasin is also the Chairman of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – India. He is the Honorary Life Member at International Bar Association, the only Indian to be honoured by IBA. He is Chairman at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Task Force on Legal Services.
He serves as the Member, Management Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and acts as National Vice President, Indo American Chambers of Commerce. He formerly was the Chairman at Delhi Bar Council and for the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.
Dr. Lalit Bhasin has also served as the Past President at Inter Pacific Bar Association, and a member of International Court of Arbitration Paris as well. He is Senior Adviser to the South Asia / Oceania and India Committee of the International Law Section of the American Bar Association.
Justice A. K. Sikri
Justice A K Sikri is a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. He has an excellent academic record. Justice Sikri conducted cases of all types with specialization in Arbitration and Commercial matters, Constitutional cases and Labour – Service Matters. He was Counsel for numerous Public Sector Undertakings, Banks & Financial Institutions, Educational Institutions, and various Private Sector Corporations. Justice Sikri was also part-time lecturer in Campus Law Centre, Delhi University (1984-89); Vice-President, Delhi High Court Bar Association in 1994-95; Member of the Governing Body of various colleges from time to time; Designated as Senior Advocate by Delhi High Court on September 30, 1997; and Appointed as Judge of Delhi High Court on July 7, 1999. As a Judge, Justice Sikri has dealt with all kinds of jurisdictions. He has sat on the Commercial Bench, IPR Bench, and Insolvency Bench for a number of years and gave many landmark judgments.
Justice Sikri was chosen as one of the 50 most influential persons in Intellectual Property in the world by a leading prestigious international organization for the year 2007 in recognition to his contribution to the growth of Intellectual Property Laws through his judgments.
Justice Sikri became the Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court on October 10, 2011 and was elevated as the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 23, 2012. Justice Sikri was elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court of India on April 12, 2013.
Madhavi Divan
Madhavi Goradia Divan is an Additional Solicitor General in the Supreme Court of India, the youngest woman to have been appointed to the post. Ms Divan commenced practice in the Bombay High Court in 1994, establishing a largely commercial law practice. She moved to the Supreme Court in 2007 where she practised on a range of subjects including constitutional law, media law and environment law. Madhavi Goradia Divan was designated a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court in 2019. She has represented the Government of India in landmark constitutional cases in the Supreme Court, including the Triple Talaq case, NJAC case on judges’ appointments, and challenges to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. She was entrusted with the task of framing the Government of India’s response to petitions by Muslim women challenging the practice of triple talaq by which a woman could be divorced by her husband instantaneously on the utterance of the word “talaq (divorce)” three times. The case culminated in a landmark judgment titled Shayara Bano versus Union of India, in which a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court delegitimized triple talaq. Ms Divan has argued free speech and media rights cases before constitution benches of the Supreme Court, notably, in the Sahara media guidelines case, WhatsApp case and more recently in Kaushal Kishore vs. State of U.P. Ms Divan has appeared in a range of corporate and commercial litigation on the original side of the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court of India. She has appeared and argued before several tribunals and fora, including the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal, Central Electricity Appellate Tribunal, National Green Tribunal, Press Council, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Securities Appellate Tribunal, Airport Appellate Tribunal, Debt Recovery Tribunal and Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal and National Consumer Disputes Redress Commission. She has also conducted arbitration cases in Mumbai and New Delhi.
Ms Divan is the author of a book on media law titled “Facets of Media Law” published by the Eastern Book Company, now in its second edition. The book is widely used by practitioners and media persons, and is a recommended text book in several law schools across India. She is the co-author of Halsbury’s Laws of India - Environment, 2003, published by Butterworths. She has contributed to the seminal publication, Courts of India - Past to Present. published by the Supreme Court of India in 2016, the section “Famous Trials” which covers landmark trials spanning over two centuries, including the sedition trials of Mahatma Gandhi, the trial of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, the obscenity trial of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and the 1993 Mumbai series blasts’ case. She has authored the chapter titled “Opening up Appointments: Civil Society Participation in the NJAC” in the book titled Appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court of India published by the Oxford University Press in 2018. She regularly writes for leading law journals and newspapers. She is the editor of The Indian Advocate, a journal published by the Bar Association of India. She has been invited as a Speaker to various lectures, seminars and conferences. She has been a guest lecturer at several law colleges across India. Ms Divan has represented various public causes on a pro bono basis, including the environment, free speech, child rights and rights of the visually challenged. She represented Citi Space, a NGO working to protect public spaces in Mumbal since 1998, in the Bombay High Court and later in the Supreme Court on a pro bono basis. She represented the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court in public interest litigation to protect mangroves along the Maharashtra coast. She represented INTACH and public-spirited citizens in a pending public interest litigation to save a public park from appropriation by a private association. She represented the Conservation Action Trust in the National Green Tribunal and the Honorable Supreme Court in a matter concerning the preservation of tiger corridors.
Ms Divan has also worked for Child Rights where she was appointed Amicus Curiae by the Bombay High Court in a case having far reaching ramifications concerning adoption of children by foreign nationals; assisted the Bombay High Court in the preparation of guidelines for the procedure to be followed in adoption matters in order to prevent child abuse and trafficking: advised and appeared for the Child Welfare Committee, a statutory quasi-judicial authority set up under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 for the protection of abandoned children.
Gourab Banerji
Gourab Banerji was appointed as Additional Solicitor General of India (ASG) in the Supreme Court in July 2009 and served a five-year term. During his stint as an ASG, apart from the sheer volume of income tax matters assigned to him, he successfully represented the Government of India in many landmark cases like the Republic of Italy v. Union of India, (2013) 4 SCC 721 (“the Italian Marines case) and State of Punjab v. Dalbir Singh, (2012) 3 SCC 346, where the Supreme Court struck down the mandatory death penalty under the Arms Act 1959.
In particular, the latter provided Mr Banerji an opportunity to use his expansive experience and knowledge in comparative law, as he presented the Supreme Court with the law in several countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Uganda, Kenya and even Malawi. For this, the Supreme Court recorded its appreciation for his ‘considerable assistance’ for placing before the Court judgments from different jurisdiction on the question of mandatory capital punishment and decisions.
He has also been appointed as an amicus curiae by the Supreme Court in several matters covering a wide range of subject matters such as refugee law, service law, Supreme Court practice and procedure and arbitration. In 2011, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court in Narmada Bachao Andolan v. State of M.P., (2011) 12 SCC 333, sought his assistance on the permissibility of State Council of Ministers to delegate its power to a subordinate authority to amend its own decision and whether such amendment was consistent with the Rules of Business framed under Article 166 of the Constitution of India.
Darius Khambata
Darius J. Khambata, Senior Counsel, practices in the Supreme Court of India, Bombay High Court, other High Courts and Tribunals across India. He has held two distinguished public law offices - as Advocate General of Maharashtra (2012-14), and before that as Additional Solicitor General of India for three years. When his term as Advocate General came to an end, the Cabinet of the then newly-elected Maharashtra government recorded its “highest appreciation of the meritorious and distinguished services” rendered by him. Mr Khambata joined the Bar as a junior to Iqbal M. Chagla, Senior Advocate, in the Chambers of Khurshedji H. Bhabha, Senior Advocate. During his early years at the Bar, he was actively involved in several major corporate litigations, including those involving the Indian Express Group and Britannia Group and in several matters before the Special Court dealing with the 1992 Securities scam. He was part of the team representing ANZ Grindlays Bank in arbitration against National Housing Bank; then the largest commercial arbitration in India, and later before the Special Court and the Supreme Court. He was also part of the team for Petitioners in a constitutional challenge to the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act 1971, and assisted the great jurist H.M. Seervai in that case before the Bombay High Court. Mr Khambata has a large and varied practice, and has appeared in numerous significant constitutional, corporate and commercial matters and domestic and international commercial arbitrations. He is a specialist in several areas of practice, including securities, arbitration, corporate, constitutional and administrative law. He has argued several important cases involving complex constitutional, criminal, tax and environmental law issues.
Among the notable cases argued by Mr Khambata are: for the tenants of the Mumbai Port Trust in the Board of Trustees of the Port of Bombay versus Jayantilal Dharamsey; Jamshed Wadia v Bombay Port Trust for the State of Maharashtra to uphold the constitutionality of levying value-added tax in respect of construction of buildings in a group of appeals decided in Larsen & Toubro versus State of Karnataka; for the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Defence to uphold the order of demolition of the high-rise building Adarsh on grounds of violation of town planning and CRZ laws and security considerations in Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society versus Union of India; for the State of Maharashtra to successfully defend the ban on gutka in Dhariwal Industries versus State of Maharashtra; for the Union of India successfully challenging and limiting the order for cross-examination of NSG Commandos in the Ajmal Kasab trial; the Competition Commission of India versus Bharti Airtel; Madhu Ashok Kapur versus Rana Kapoor (the Yes Bank case); the Coastal Road matter for the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai in Worli Koliwada Nakhwa versus the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai; the MCX Stock Exchange matter (for SEBI) for King’s XI Punjab challenging its disenfranchisement by the BCCI; the Joint Venture dispute between Sanofi Aventis and Novartis; and the arbitration between Tata Sons Ltd. and NTT Docomo Inc.
Mr Khambata regularly appears before the Securities Appellate Tribunal both for the SEBI as well as for private parties, and has argued several leading cases concerning securities laws. He is currently a member of SEBI’s Takeover Panel, which recommends exemptions from open offers required under the SEBI Regulations on takeovers. Previously, he was a member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Committee to recommend new insider trading regulations. He was part of the Law Commission of India’s Committee, which in 2014-2015 framed and recommended substantial amendments to the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996. He has been Vice-President of the London Court of International Arbitration, and is currently a member of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre’s Court. He is a member of One Essex Court, a leading set of commercial chambers in the UK, apart from having his own chambers in Mumbai. He also sits on the Advisory Council of the Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai.
Dr. T. K. Viswanathan
Dr. T. K. Viswanathan is a legal luminary who was awarded the Padma Shri by the President of India in 2017. He has held various positions in academia, the Government of India, and the Lok Sabha.
During the four decades of his career, he has served as a lawyer, a Professor of Jurisprudence, Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Law & Justice, and Secretary General of the Lok Sabha. He has drafted many landmark legislations over the past two decades, and the Government has immensely benefitted from his expertise in legislative drafting and in parliamentary and constitutional matters.
The Information Technology Act 2000, which laid the basis for cyber law in India, the Competition Act 2002, and the Right to Information Act 2005 are three important landmark legislations worth mentioning which have laid the foundation for a new jurisprudence in the Indian legal framework. As Chairman of the Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee 2014, he was responsible for drafting the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, which is the most important economic reform next only to GST since independence.
Shardul Shroff
Widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of Corporate Law, Mr. Shroff has participated in the training and drafting of several important economic legislations and company law reforms in India. He was a member of the Insolvency Law Committee, constituted by the Government of India, to review the implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Mr. Shroff was also a member of the Committee constituted to review decriminalisation of offences under the Companies Act and the Committee on cross-border insolvency, both headed by Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. Under Mr. Shroff’s leadership, the Firm has been recognised as ‘Best in Insolvency’ at the Asialaw’s Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Awards 2018. Mr. Shroff has been on a number of other high-powered committees appointed by the Government of India including the JJ Irani Committee for amending the Companies Act, the Expert Committee on maintenance of Cost Records and Cost Audit in 2014, the Eradi Committee involved in the insolvency provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, the second Naresh Chandra Committee appointed to look into aspects of SMEs and simplification of Company Law and the Valuation Committee. As a preeminent expert of his field, Mr. Shroff has been appointed as an independent director on significant boards of Indian companies. He is a member of the US-India Business Council, Vice Chair of the Corporate Counsel Committee of the IPBA Council, the Union Internationale Des Advocats, and the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Shroff was elected as the Chairman of the CII National Committee on Legal Services and Arbitration in 2017-2019 and was also a Member of the CII National Council on Services 2018-2019. Mr. Shroff was a member of the CII Task Force on the Ease of Doing Business, 2017-2018. Mr. Shroff has been the Chairman of the FICCI Committee on Stressed Assets, a member of the Capital Markets Committee since 2019. Mr. Shroff has also been appointed as the Senior Vice President on the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF).
Mr. Shroff has been consistently rated as a leading lawyer by several international fora and publications, including the Who’s Who Legal, AsiaLaw, Chambers and Partners, Legal 500, Euromoney, International Financial Law Review (IFLR) etc. He has been recognised as Star Individual in Corporate/M&A by Chambers and Partners Asia Pacific 2022, a Legal Icon in IBLJ - The A list Lawyers 2021. He is also part of the Hall of Fame for Banking and Finance by The Legal 500 2022 and Leading Lawyers of Restructuring and Insolvency by The Legal 500 2022. Mr. Shroff has been recognised as the Thought Leader – Global Elite for M&A and Global Leader for Corporate Governance and Project Finance by Who’s Who Legal, 2021 and for M&A and Corporate Governance in 2020.
Pallavi Shroff
Pallavi heads the Dispute Resolution practice at the Firm, with an extensive knowledge in matters of litigation and arbitration. She also mentors the Competition Law practice at the Firm. Pallavi is a member of the Competition Law Review Committee, constituted by the Government of India to ensure that the legislation is in tune with the changing business environment. She has been recently appointed as a member of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance (India Chapter - one of 5 women in India selected), constituted by the Government of India. She has been closely involved with some of the largest and most challenging litigation and arbitration matters in India with regard to energy, infrastructure, natural resources, mergers & acquisitions, legislative and policy related matters. She appears regularly in the Supreme Court and High Courts of India, and in arbitrations, mediations and international legal disputes.
She is an Alternate Member (India) at the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce) Court of Arbitration and is also a member of the CII Arbitration Law Committee. Under her leadership, the firm was engaged by FICCI and CII to represent the entire Indian Industry in the Presidential Reference proceedings (Special Reference 1 of 2012) being heard by a five Judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. The Judgement passed by the Constitution Bench is one of the most famous and compelling rulings in India on methods of disposal of natural resources in India. She regularly represents several companies such as Nestle, General Electric, Havells, Vale Australia, Vodafone, BHEL and ONGC.
Anand Pathak
Anand S. Pathak has extensive experience in advising clients on the full range of US, European and Indian legal issues in connection with international mergers and acquisitions, privatisations, financings, technology licensing, distribution and franchising and agency arrangements, and European and Indian laws on competition, state assistance, trade and intellectual property.
Mr. Pathak has represented clients in arbitrations, including the Government of India in bilateral investment treaty arbitrations and various companies in claims for compensation from the United Nations Compensation Commission for losses arising from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
He has more than 30 years of active practice in the US, EU and India. He has represented Indian and multinational companies in a number of cross-border acquisitions and joint ventures in the US, Europe and Asia; cross-border ADR/GDR and stock swap transactions; tender offers under the Indian Takeover Code; and financings and cross-border BPO/outsourcing transactions Representative transactions include the formation of international joint ventures between TRW Inc. and Satyam Computer Services, and between State Street and Syntel (and related business process outsourcing of back office processes); outsourcing of back office processes by Wachovia Bank, Nationwide Insurance and Washington Mutual to various Indian vendors; US acquisitions by Rediff.com, US and European acquisitions by HCL Technologies of companies, Indian acquisitions by Chevron and private equity investments by Warburg Pincus, Silver Lake Partners, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, APAX Partners, Citibank, WL Ross Funds (distressed asset transactions) and SAIF Partners.
His privatisation experience includes the privatisation of MIBRAG GmbH in the former East Germany and the representation of the Government of India in the privatisation of Modern Food Industries and IPCL. He has represented Total S.A., Chevron Corporation and El Paso Gas in oil and gas matters; and Bombardier, Véolia, Dalkia, Weir Group, Bharti Airtel, Aditya Birla Group and Aircel in infrastructure matters and financings. He is currently representing IL&FS in the monetisation of its assets and various infrastructure-related matters.
Anand Desai
Anand has been the Managing Partner of DSK Legal since its inception in April 2001. With over three decades of wide-ranging experience in both contentious and non-contentious work across a wide range of practice areas, he has been a respected and sought-after counsel serving several large Indian and multinational corporations, business leaders and Bollywood A-listers.
Anand started his career as a junior counsel in the Bombay High Court and appeared successfully for high-profile clients like Harshad Mehta at an early stage of his career. Anand’s expertise is recognised in Mergers & Acquisitions / Private Equity, Dispute Resolution, Real Estate, Insolvency & Restructuring, White-Collar Crime, Media & Entertainment, and Technology. His range of work has included significant transactions in the real estate and pharmaceutical sectors, and appearing for well-known celebrities including Aamir Khan and Salman Khan in their civil and criminal litigation cases. He is widely regarded as a professional who takes a fair and practical approach to enable resolution of matters.
He has served as the National President of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and as President of TIE Mumbai. He is actively involved with several NGOs. Anand is recognised by Asian Legal Business as one of Asia’s Top 15 Litigators 2022, listed in ‘100 Legal Luminaries of India’ by LexisNexis, and recognised in India Business Law Journal’s “The A-List 2021” as a Legal Icon. He has been listed for many years as one of the leading lawyers in India by Who’s Who Legal, Chambers Asia-Pacific, Chambers Global, Legal 500, IFLR1000, Asialaw Profiles and Forbes India, among many others. Asialaw Profiles carried a client quote of his being ‘The best legal mind in India.’
Pravin Anand
Pravin Anand is the Managing Partner and Head of Litigation at Anand and Anand. Awarded the AIPPI Award of Merit, INTA’s President’s Award, recognised as the “Most Innovative Lawyer” by Financial Times and the first Indian to be inducted in the IAM IP Hall of Fame, Mr Anand has an experience of appearing in over 2500 cases and successfully resolving many hundreds in over 43 years of his practice as an IP lawyer.
Leading from the front, Mr Anand has strengthened India’s IP jurisprudence with practice encompassing all facets of IP. To his credit are patent lawsuits that have transformed the pharmaceutical and bio-technology enforcement regime in India including Merck Vs. Glenmark; Roche Vs. Cipla; the Monsanto case; and a large number of other suits on behalf of Pfizer, BMS, AstraZeneca, etc.
Mr Anand had broken new grounds in Indian IP jurisprudence with India’s first Anti-suit injunction (InterDigital v Xiaomi); Nokia-Lenovo multi-technology multi-year agreement; Software Patent law suit conferring protection (FeridAllani case); development of damages culture in large number of cases that recognised not only punitive, but compensatory, exemplary and aggravated damages (Philips Vs. AmazeStore); India’s first post-trial SEP judgement (Philips Vs. Bhagirathi); development of unique remedies such as the “Tree Planting Order” (Merck case); and order benefiting adolescent girls (Hermes case).
Recognised as India’s IP trailblazer and a “living legend” by leading publications, Mr Anand’s distinguished career has included India’s first Anton Piller order (HMV Gramophone Case); India’s first Mareva injunction order (Philips Case); India’s first Norwich Pharmacal order (Hollywood Cigarettes Case); Pioneer Overseas Corporation Case paving the way for DNA testing for disputed IPR in plant variety; India’s first order under the Hague Convention for collecting overseas evidence in India (AstraZeneca Case), and the Glenfiddich case against McDowell protecting trade dress in India, With his significant understanding of trademarks, he has secured declarations of well-known status for several trademarks like 3D shape of ZIPPO, Red-sole of Christian Louboutin etc.
V Lakshmikumaran
V. Lakshmikumaran is the Founder and Managing Partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys. Mr. Lakshmikumaran has been acknowledged for his contribution and thought leadership widely and has been bestowed with several recognitions (such as the Legal 500 Hall of Fame, the Indian Business Law Journal Elite Category A List Top 100 Indian lawyers, Elite Practitioner and Market Leading Lawyer (Tax) by Asia Law, Band 1 Tax lawyer by Chamber& Partners, to name a few). His deep understanding of technological issues that impact taxation as well as his expertise in classification of goods under HSN are highly recognized; so much that he has played a pivotal role in the development of jurisprudence relating to customs and excise laws in India. As a delegate of the International Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Lakshmikumaran has attended the WCO-HS (World Customs Organization – Harmonised System) Committee meetings on Classification in Brussels. He has addressed the WCO GATT Valuation Workshop on Customs Valuation, WTO World Forum, SAWTR and is regularly invited to give talks globally by governments and leading universities such as Harvard, Cornell and many more.
Prior to starting LKS, Mr. Lakshmikumaran was part of the Indian Revenue Service, instrumenting certain key tax policies of the Indian government. An LLB and an MSc in Mathematics from the University of Madras, Mr. Lakshmikumaran has interests in technology, international trade, economics, accounting, and their intersection with the law.
Rajeev Chopra
Rajeev, currently in his 30th year of his career, has been previously associated with several law firms and national and multinational corporates which has shaped his illustrious career. He started his career with private practice in the Delhi High Court, before moving to law firms in corporate commercial practice. He has been the General Counsel and led legal teams in LG, Airtel and Dell, before joining Accenture in 2007. Rajeev believes that fostering a culture of inclusion, fairness, equality and ethical conduct is critical to building strong teams and fostering innovation.
Rajeev has led several transformational and change management projects at Accenture.
Rajeev was recently recognised by Legal Era as the General Counsel of the year – South East Asia region in 2021. He also bagged several other recognition in the past and is acknowledged as one of the leading “General Counsel” in India. Notably, he was awarded Cheavening Scholarship by the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1996. Rajeev is also (i) Chair of the General Counsel Sub Committee and (ii) Member, Task Force on International Legal Services constituted by Confederation of Indian Industry.
Dev Bajpai
Dev Bajpai has more than three decades of working experience in the areas of legal, corporate affairs, governance & tax. He has worked in multiple industries like FMCG, Automobiles, Private Equity & Hospitality. Over the years, Mr. Bajpai has built a reputation of being a business-friendly lawyer with high focus on governance and doing the right thing & doing it right. Mr. Bajpai had a lead role to play in the recent merger of GSK Consumer Health Limited into HUL, the biggest merger of a listed FMCG company into another listed FMCG company in recent times.
At Unilever, Mr. Bajpai is credited to have put in place a Legal Strategy with the focus on business integration. The strategy encompasses areas of work that facilitate the growth of Unilever businesses including proactively addressing legislative changes, seeking a level playing field within the FMCG Industry on claims, advertising, regulatory compliance etc. making the Legal Department go digital and simplifying processes to enable the lawyers to spend more time on value-added jobs, combating unfair competition, and building capability within the South Asia and larger teams that he is responsible for. The strategy has yielded good results and left the team with unfinished agenda to deal with indicating that the areas of work remain relevant for the business, add value to the lawyers by giving them quality exposure and an opportunity to add to their capability.
The Legal team under Mr. Bajpai made meaningful contribution during the Pandemic and was instrumental in ensuring that the daily needs items of Unilever’s portfolio reached millions of consumers by working closely with the Central and State Administration. The Legal team also saw an opportunity in their agenda of “hunting for growth” and introduced a new channel for sale of Unilever portfolio through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) which has now become a separate channel for making sales for HUL, thereby, creating long-term business value.
A. Shanmuga Sundaram
A. Shanmuga Sundaram is the General Counsel at ITC Limited. He heads a 60-member strong team, including about 45 lawyers, at the organisation which is a successful conglomerate with a strong presence in about a dozen business verticals. Besides advising the company and handling a variety of legal issues, he assists in resolving complex deals across all its businesses. In addition, he trains and leads his team, ensuring that it is fully capable of delivering end-to-end legal services to the company.
He cut his teeth on writs and other litigation – civil and criminal – at the Madras High Court, before moving in-house. After his foray into the real-estate and petrochemical sectors, Shanmugam joined ITC in 1997. He was soon noticed for his versatile legal knowledge and matchless skills for deftly handling sensitive legal issues.
Shanmugam played a crucial role in closing several acquisition and divestment deals of vital importance to the company. With his nuanced understanding of facts and law, he has been a key factor in the successful closure of disputes in several areas of law, including trademarks, corporate law, taxation, labour and commercial disputes.
He has written numerous scholarly articles published in renowned journals including the Supreme Court Journal, Labour Law Journal, Andhra Law Times, Karnataka GST Law Journal and the Current Tamil Nadu Cases.
Vineet Vij
Vineet Vij is serving as the Global General Counsel of Tech Mahindra Group. Leading a team of 100 passionate and business-focussed lawyers spread across the globe with presence in India, US, Mexico, UK, Netherlands, Israel, and so on, Vineet and team is responsible for taking care of the legal and regulatory aspects to support the organisation’s growth in due compliance with applicable laws that involves supporting multi-billion cross-border commercial transactions, mergers and acquisitions, disputes and litigations, global compliances, legal policy and regulatory, IPR, strategic legal support with the overall responsibility to safeguard the legal & business interests of the company and its principal officers. As part of the overall department structure, the legal teams of group companies worldwide, namely, Comviva Technologies, Born Group, Target Group, Tech Mahindra Business Services, LCC also work under Vineet’s supervision and guidance.
Vineet has worked for over 27 years at established IT, ITeS, Engineering, Banking & NBFC corporations. As an independent practitioner he has also worked across variety of practice areas including Commercial and Contract law, Litigation and Dispute resolution, Cross-border M&As, Global regulatory compliances, Financial and Banking laws, Real estate SEZ and STPI regulations, Company law, IT, Data protection, Privacy, Cyber and IPR laws, Criminal law, Telecom, Arbitration, Employment, Bankruptcy, Competition and Indirect tax laws. Vineet has bagged several awards and accolades by prestigious publications & institutions, including Forbes Powerlist Top India GCs 2020 and 2021; Business World’s Top 100 GCs 2020 and 2021; Global General Counsel 2021-22 by Legal Era; General Counsel IT Services 2021 by IBLJ; General Counsel 2020 by IDEX Legal; General Counsel (Male) 2019 by Legal Era; Shining Star of Indian Legal Fraternity 2019 by CCAI; General Counsel 2019 by INBA; General Counsel 2018 by ICCA, Legal Excellence Award 2017 by Legal Era among others.
Hemant Kumar
Hemant Kumar is the Group General Counsel at Larsen & Toubro Limited. Skilled in strategic advisory, board management, enterprise risk and compliance, complex transactions and litigation, cross functional leadership, change management, public policy and government relations. Bring a global mindset and strong execution to grow businesses in challenging regulatory environments. Hemant is also a prolific writer and has written several articles on various aspects of corporate law and Industrial laws, Mr Kumar has given several presentations at international & National forums on Arbitrations, ADR, cross-border acquisitions, negotiation of JVs etc. He has strong domain knowledge of various corporate laws of India and also has sound working knowledge of laws of different jurisdictions including USA, England, Australia, Africa France, and European & Middle East. He has extensively travelled abroad for various assignments and has sound understanding of the laws and practices in different jurisdictions of the world. Kumar has considerable expertise in foreign investment and FEMA regulations for both in-bound and out-bound investments.
He is a gold medalist in LLB and started his journey as an advocate by conducting many high-profile cases, especially related to the Members of Parliament and Members of the Legislative Assemblies. He was the defence counsel in the Bhagalpur Blinding Case. Earlier, he held senior positions at the State Bank of India; the Steel Authority of India; JSW Steel (formerly, Ispat Industries); President - Legal – Reliance ADAG; and Group General Counsel - Essar Group. He was also empanelled as a faculty with distinguished MBA and engineering colleges and was also a paper-setter and examiner for the diploma course in Safety Engineering Examinations. Hemant has been awarded as Chambers GC Influencers Award, India by Chambers and Partners, London, UK (2019); Legal Icon of India by Legal Era (2020); and BW Legal World Top 100 General Counsel Award (2020), a recipient of several prestigious awards including the Jawahar Award (BSP-SAIL’s highest individual honors); Business Excellence Award by Legal League Counsel; General Counsel of the Year by Legal Era (2013); and Corporate Counsel India (2013). Under his leadership, the Corporate Legal Department of Larsen & Toubro, was awarded the Best Legal Department in India by RSG London (2019).
Vikram Nankani
Vikram Nankani, a designated Senior Advocate, is an India-qualified lawyer since 1986. Mr Nankani began by joining the Chamber of Ashok Desai, Senior Advocate and former Attorney General of India. Between 1986 and 2003, he appeared as Counsel in a variety of matters concerning commercial disputes, corporate matters, economic offences and criminal cases, tax, shipping and arbitration. He was a Partner in Economic Laws Practice until designated Senior Advocate in September 2014. He regularly appears before various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India and has to his credit, several landmark judgments rendered by the Courts that have been reported by various authoritative journals and reporters.
Mr Nankani is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), London. He is Chairperson of the SIAC India National Users Committee. He is on the Governing Council of the Mumbai Centre of International Arbitration.
Mr Nankani completed his LLM from the Government Law College, Mumbai, in 1988. He has been acknowledged by Legal 500 as a Leading Individual Practitioner in Dispute Resolution and Litigation in India.
Parag Tripathi
Parag P. Tripathi, Senior Advocate, has been in active practice since 1983 in the Supreme Court of India, Delhi High Court and other High Courts, Judicial Tribunals, CEGAT, CLB and MRTP and in commercial arbitrations. His areas of specialisation include: Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Direct and Indirect Tax Laws, Commercial and Corporate Laws, Foreign Investment and FEMA. Mr Tripathi joined the Chambers of Senior Advocate K.K. Venugopal in 1986. He was designated as Senior Advocate in January 2000. He served as Additional Solicitor General of India from February 5, 2008 to January 2, 2012. As Additional Solicitor General, he represented the Union of India in a wide variety of constitutional matters, taxation and socio-economic legislation in the Supreme Court. He has vast and varied experience representing Public Sector Utilities, including Maharatna and Navratna companies, in the Supreme Court and various High Courts and in domestic and international commercial arbitrations. He has extensive experience in settling Foreign Collaborations, Joint Venture Agreements and Project Finance Agreements for a large number of clients, both Indian corporates and MNCs, including the Alstom Group, flagship companies of the Tata Group and Reliance Group and telecom companies, among others.
Mr Tripathi has appeared in the Supreme Court in leading matters of Constitutional and Corporate law, including the Mandal Commission, freedom of press in reporting proceedings sub-judice, judicial review and enforceability of fundamental rights, federal structure and Centre-State relationships, appointment of Judges of the High Courts and Supreme Court, Service Law matters, the Shaw Wallace corporate dispute, medical education (minority institution), the 2G scam, CWG scam and Harshad Mehta scam. He has appeared for and consulted in a diverse range of matters that marked the shift from FERA to FEMA in post-liberalisation India. These range from early cases like Renusagar Power Company Ltd. (1994) to more recent ones involving ENRON (secondment of employees), the Motorola and Standard Chartered FEMA proceedings, PIL involving money laundering and stashing of wealth by Indian nationals in European banks, and DTAA treaties.
Mr Tripathi has regularly appeared in international arbitrations since 1978. In fact the first arbitration under SIAC Singapore held in India was argued by him in the Alstom versus HPGC case. The principal litigation matters argued by him include those related to the rights and duties of intermediaries like Facebook; FEMA and the interconnect with the Passport Act; those related to Environment Law such as the new MOPA Airport in Goa; and those related to IPR (trademarks, patents and copyright). He has argued for discharge petition in one of the related cases of 2G spectrum before the designated Court. He has consistently appeared for the Committee of Administrators of the BCCI in the Supreme Court till the charge was handed over to the elected representatives of the BCCI.
Mr Tripathi is a life member of the Supreme Court Bar Association and Delhi High Court Bar Association; a member of the Executive Committee of the Indian Chapter of Union Des Advocates; and Paris member of the SAARCLAW Organizing Committee. He is Honorary Adjunct Professor of Law at Jindal Global Law University in Sonepat. He has published papers in leading law journals and actively participated as Speaker at various seminars, conferences and conventions - both national and international.
Kala Anandarajah
Kala Anandarajah, Head, Competition & Antitrust and Trade, Lead Partner, Corporate Governance, Rajah & Tann
Kala takes pride in ensuring that every piece of work she undertakes is targeted and focussed, addressing the specific need of the client in a practical business-oriented manner.
A profound legal advisor to both multinational corporations and local companies across the region, Kala has had many firsts in her career, handling difficult and complex matters, demystifying and simplifying issues to achieve the clients’ aim.
Kala Anandarajah heads the Competition & Antitrust and Trade Practice and leads the Corporate Governance Practice at Rajah & Tann. With several accolades for her legal work, her key practice areas are Competition and Trade (including consumer protection), with strong secondary practices in Employment, Environmental (EHS) & Sustainability, Corporate Governance and Telco/Media Laws.
She sits on various boards, including Building and Construction Authority, Singapore Institute of Legal Education; and is a member of the External Review Panel of Safety in SAF (MIDEF), the Appeal Board - Council of Estate Agents (MND). She was for a long-time part of the Workplace Safety & Health Council and was on the Committee for Professional Training of Lawyers formed by the Chief Justice of Singapore.
Anandarajah has been involved in major cartel/ abuse investigations, cross-border mergers/ other notifications, leniency applications, and also handles dawn-raids, complaints, consultation, counselling, compliance, training and implementation of competition laws across the region. On trade agreements specifically, her work has spanned providing feedback on FTAs being negotiated, setting up a business and structuring logistics flows to benefit from RTAs and FTAs, advising extensively on ROOs and COOs, whilst meandering the different ROO under different FTAs, advising on how best to benefit from preferential treatment, and also handling defending violations vis-à-vis customs regulators.
Anandarajah holds an LLB (Hons) degree from National University of Singapore and has completed her MBA (Banking and Finance) from Nanyang Technological University.
She is perhaps the only Singapore lawyer cited as a leading Trade lawyer by international legal ranking journals. Anandarajah is a prolific writer and is widely published, with many of her books being first publications in Singapore and the region and now leading texts relied upon by many lawyers, other professionals and businessmen.
Some of the accolades and recognition bagged by Kala include, Nominated Regional Lawyer of the Year by Legal 500, Commended External Counsel of the Year 2016 by the Inhouse Community, Top 100 Women in Antitrust in the World by the Global Competition Review, etc.
Deepak Acharya
Erstwhile Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel at Wipro, Deepak Acharya has joined Aditya Birla Group as its Global General Counsel.
Deepak Acharya is a certified Corporate Trainer for various Corporate Training Programs like Corporate Athlete, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Coaching for Success. A law graduate from the Government Law College-Mumbai, Deepak is a Fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and also an Associate Member of the All India Management Association.
Practicing for more than 25 years in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industry, an experienced lawyer, Deepak has previously worked in various positions for The Procter & Gamble Company in India, Asia Pacific, Greater China, Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and African Regions.
While working as the Chief Risk Officer & General Counsel of Wipro Limited, Deepak was responsible for Legal & Compliance, Enterprise Risk Management, Enterprise Cyber Security, Global Data Privacy and Global Government Relations functions for Wipro Limited.
Aliff Fazelbhoy
A senior partner with ALMT Legal with more than three decades in the profession, Aliff Fazelbhoy has an all-round practice including M&A, tax, and employment law.
Aliff is recognised as an outstanding lawyer in his chosen fields of practice. His expertise across corporate and commercial laws, tax and employment couple with his leadership abilities enables the Firm to provide seamless and practical advice in all kinds of cross border deals, something which clients have always appreciated. Aliff is consistently recognised by global legal publications like Legal 500, Asia Law, Chambers and Partners, IFLR 1000, etc. The India Business Law Journal and Asian Legal Business has consistently ranked Aliff within the top 100 private practice lawyers and Super 50 India Lawyers in India since last many years.
Biswajit Chatterjee
As the Singapore Managing Partner and co-head of the India practice at Hogan Lovells, Biswajit (Bis) Chatterjee is a top tier and highly reputed lawyer for corporate finance transactions focused on India, SE Asia, Asia Pac and the Middle East. With over 20 years of experience, he advises clients on equity and debt capital markets, corporate finance, M&A and PE transactions, as well as on compliance issues and investigations matters.
Bis has a proven track record of delivering successful outcomes for his clients, having worked on more than 240 IPOs, equity and debt transactions and fundraisings with an aggregate value of more than US$65B. He also supports large conglomerates on their global growth and reorganization strategies, as well as on regulatory issues such as economic sanctions, government procurement, compliance and investigations, and corporate governance issues.
Bis is highly ranked by Chambers & Partners, IFLR 1000, Best Lawyers, Legal 500 and other legal directories. Chambers Global has consistently (2010 - 2023) ranked him a highly regarded lawyer and confirm client testimonials that include "very professional and extremely thorough" who is “solution oriented”, “extremely knowledgeable about India and Indian client requirements”, and a "tough negotiator" who offers clients "incredible personal attention". In 2022, Bis was named Leading Cross Border Lawyer of the Year (among 25 lawyers globally) at the 3rd Annual Global Achievers Awards by Legal Era, which identifies leading lawyers at global firms for their work on inbound and outbound India matters.
Jai Pathak
Jai S. Pathak is a partner of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Mr. Pathak has extensive experience in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, dispositions, privatizations, joint ventures, licensing, infrastructure development, as well as private equity and structured finance transactions. His practice has included projects in the United States, Europe, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Canada, Australia and China.
Chambers Asia-Pacific 2023 and Chambers Global 2023 ranked Mr. Pathak as a leading lawyer in Corporate/M&A for India (top tier Band 1) and Singapore. Chambers noted that Mr. Pathak is characterized by peers as “an excellent lawyer” with “many years of experience working in India” and “his reputation precedes him, and his hold on the Indian market is unsurpassed.” He was presented the “National Law Day Award – 2001” by the Indian Council of Jurists for his unique contribution to the development of Indian corporate law. In addition, Mr. Pathak was recognized as an A-List lawyer on India Business Law Journal’s 2022-23 International A-List, featuring the top 100 “foreign lawyers most recommended by clients and peers for their work on the cross-border aspects of India-related matters.”
Mr. Pathak regularly speaks on legal developments and subjects relating to his practice area. He has sat on public company boards in India and Singapore, as an independent director.
Mr. Pathak graduated from law school with a B.A. in Jurisprudence (Honors) in 1984 from the University of Oxford where he also earned a M.A. in 1989. He received his LL.M. from the University of Virginia in 1985. He previously earned his B.A. (Honors) and M.A. degrees from the University of Delhi (St. Stephen’s College) and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Karthik Kumar
Karthik Kumar has over two decades of experience acting for investors, developers, lenders and sponsors on high-profile M&A, project development and infrastructure projects in the Asia Pacific region with a strong focus on India. He has particular expertise in the renewable energy sector, having acted on significant Indian transactions in the solar, wind and EV sectors in India. He is highly regarded in the Indian market for his in-depth regulatory knowledge and significant transactional experience. Clients laud him for his commercial approach and deep regional background.
Markus Burgstaller
Dr. Markus Burgstaller has been a Partner in the International Arbitration Practice of Hogan Lovells in London since 2014. Prior to joining Hogan Lovells in 2007, he served as Legal Advisor in the Office of the Austrian Chancellor (Bundeskanzleramt) for more than four years.
He combines experience in public international law and EU law at the highest level of Government with many years of experience in advising and representing States, international organisations and businesses in private practice.
Dr. Burgstaller acts for investors, States, and international organisations in international disputes, mainly arbitrations under the ICSID and UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, and in proceedings before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
Markus was lead counsel for the Slovak Republic in the Achmea case before the CJEU in which the CJEU ruled that EU law precludes a provision in an international agreement concluded between EU Member States that provides for investor-State arbitration.
For his work Markus received the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers award for innovation in legal expertise – dispute resolution, the award for "Most Important Decision" by Global Arbitration Review and was named "Lawyer of the Week" by The Times.
Recognized as a leading individual in public international law in the UK and globally, Markus guest lectures at universities such as the University of Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Humboldt University in Berlin.
Markus is frequently interviewed and published in international media such as the Financial Times, The Economist, The Times, the BBC, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Dr. Burgstaller has previously served for twelve years on the ICSID Panel of Conciliators nominated by the Austrian Government. He is currently serving on the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators again nominated by the Austrian Government.
Abhishekh Kanoi
Abhishekh Kanoi is the Head of Legal & Group Company Secretary of PDS Limited. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and also an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investments, United Kingdom.
Abhishekh Kanoi holds a Bachelor Degree in Law and Bachelor Degree in Commerce with (Hons.) in Accounts. He is also a Fellow Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He has rich and diverse in-house corporate experience of over 16 years in Corporate Legal and Commercial Space across various industries like law firm, hospitality, manufacturing, automotive, media & entertainment, fashions and apparel industry and non-banking financial institutions with special reference to emerging technology and convergence.
His wide array of specialization includes Legal Affairs, Corporate Secretarial, IPO & Listing, Regulatory Compliances, RBI & FEMA Matters, Merger & Acquisition, Listing Compliances (India & Overseas Entities), Venture Capital Investments, Cross Border and Domestic Transactions, Intellectual Property Rights, Copyrights, Media and Entertainment Laws.
He has earned the respect of the industry in conducting and adjudged as Chief Compliance Innovator of the Year by UBS Forum in 2019, Young Achiever of the Year by Legal Era in 2021 and awarded by Lex Talk World for impactful contribution to legal industry in 2022. He has helped to develop a new global legal and governance framework for the company while ensuring its overseas expansion is brought into line with this centralized approach.
Amar Kumar Sundram
Amar Sundram is the General Counsel - Senior Vice President (Legal) and Chief Compliance Officer at NEC Corporation Pvt India. He has been an in-house Senior Corporate Legal Professional, having rich experience in strategic thinking, formulation of operational guidelines and a business enabler to complex legal issues. With over 26 years of experience, he has worked with both Indian and multinational business houses including DCM Shriram, Birla, Tata, AT&T, Reliance, Citi, Ernst & Young and Royal Bank of Scotland. Amar has held senior leadership management positions in many of the organisations that he has worked for.
He has handled high-stake international and domestic mediation and arbitration involving critical issues of law and multi-jurisdictional complexities. He has also spearheaded litigations in the Supreme Court, different high courts of India and the courts in the US. A topper in LL.M from the Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi, Amar has advised corporates on various legal issues in the arenas including regulatory, compliance, taxation, arbitration, insurance, financial laws, employment laws, cross-border transactions, government contracts, technology related laws, power, and criminal law.
A known name in the legal world, Amar was listed among India’s Top 100 General Counsels by Legal 500 in 2016 & 2018. Under his leadership, the EY India legal team was selected amongst the top 100 in-house teams (2017) by Legal 500 and also his team at EY ranked in the top five finalists for Asia Legal Awards (2019). Further, his legal team at Royal Bank of Scotland, India was declared the best legal team by Legal 500 (2019).
Recognising his contribution in the field of Corporate Law and Strategic Planning and for his exemplary commitment in legal policy implementation and corporate leadership, Amar was conferred with the title of ‘Honorary Professor’ by Amity University, Haryana in the year 2019.
Amar was honoured as Shining Star of Indian Legal Fraternity (2019) by the Corporate Counsel Association of India, was declared the Best General Counsel (Banking) by the Indian National Bar Association (2019), ranked among the top 100 General Counsels in India by Business World (2021), recognised amongst the Best Leading Lawyers by the World Intellectual Property Forum (2022) and recently has been recognised as Top General Counsel of India by Forbes India Legal Powerlist 2021 (result declared in March 2022).
Amar holds various honorary positions – the latest ones being a member of the Advisory Board of UK-India Legal Partnership (UKILP) and a founding member of General Counsel Association of India (GCAI).
Amit Bhasin
Amit Bhasin is the Chief Legal Officer & Group General Counsel at Marico Limited. As a part of the Executive Committee, he is responsible for legal and corporate affairs functions at Marico’s Indian and international markets and also leads the corporate social responsibility functions.
Amber Gupta
Amber Gupta has 22 years of work experience in the field of legal, compliance, regulatory and company secretarial functions encompassing Corporate & Securities Laws, Capital Markets & Broking Laws, Insurance Laws, Banking & NBFC Regulations, IPR Laws, IT Laws, Dispute Resolution, Contract Management, Corporate Compliances, Board, Shareholders and Governance matters with specialisation in financial services sector. Mr Gupta has extensive hands-on experience in policy making and regulatory matters, emerging areas of laws and regulations, brand protection, legal risk assessment, due diligence and business integration, transactional and legal advisory in new business initiatives, fundraising, IPO, Board and Governance matters, Joint-Ventures, Scheme of Arrangements, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy framework and implementation of Knowledge Management Initiatives.
Anubhav Kapoor
Anubhav Kapoor is the Director, Legal Affairs at Ford India, Pune. He is responsible for intellectual property rights, regulatory compliance and corporate governance practices and policies for the entities of the Company in India. As an in-house counsel, he has 29 years of experience, which spans various industries including information technology, automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, food, banking and insurance software and engineering.
He has handled multifarious areas such as mergers and acquisitions, arbitration and litigation management, structuring large business contracts, intellectual property rights and global compliances. Passionate about innovation, he has assisted large corporates including Tata Technologies, Cummins, Domino’s Pizza India and Polaris in devising their intellectual property creation and monetisation strategies.
Anubhav has also handled contracts and litigations involving complex IP issues, including during mergers and acquisitions, spin-out and joint venture deals. Having done his Master’s in Law from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, he did his MBA in Finance & Information Technology from the Institute of Management Technology. He was listed in the Intellectual Asset Management Strategy 300 among the World’s Leading IP Strategists and was awarded the Star General Counsel (2017) of the Year by Legal Era. He also figured among the top 100 General Counsels in India by Business World (2021). He was a part of the Elite BW Legal World Top 100 General Counsels of India by Business World (2021). He was awarded the CSR Leadership Award 2018 by World CSR Congress. Best Automotive Lawyer – Individual Category by India Business Law Journal In-house Counsel Awards - Dec 2021. Best Leading Lawyer 2022 by World Intellectual Property Forum Intellectual Professionals LLP -Jan 2022.
Atul Juvle
Atul Juvle General Counsel, Compliance Officer and Company Secretary, Schindler India & South Asia. Working with the Company since 2014, he is a qualified lawyer, banker and did his post-graduation in Commerce and obtained a Masters’ in Financial Management.
He is a Certified Fraud Examiner (the United States), a CFPCM (the United Sates), MCiARB, UK and a Mediator. He has three decades of experience spanning five varied sectors - banking, exports, life insurance, agro-based industry and vertical transportation.
Atul is a member of the Advisory Board of the ICFAI Business School, Mumbai (2021-2023), Advisory Council of ACFE, US (2022), Member of CII Regulatory Committee (2018-2022) and ASSOCHAM’s National IPR Committee (2021-2022).
He continues to be part of Forbes India GC-Power list - for two consecutive years - 2020 & 2021. Since 2016, his name has been featured in the Top 100 Powerful General Counsels of India. (The lists are published by different organisations).
Badrinath Durvasula
Badrinath Durvasula is the Managing Director – Legal at Essar Group. His role involves mergers and acquisitions, contract management and litigation and arbitration the world over. Prior to joining Essar, Badrinath was a known face as the Legal Head of L&T. He has also worked with Hindustan Construction Company, Adani Group, Reliance Industries, Dr. Reddys, Asian Paints and General Insurance Corporation. With over 30 years of experience, his expertise also lies in cross-border transactions, international contracting, intellectual property, strategy, compliance, and joint-venture formations. Badrinath also works in legal and financial due diligence, long-term supply agreements and ancillary agreements, and International Chambers for Commercial arbitrations. He travelled extensively in Europe, US, Australia, GCC countries and South East Asia attending a number of legal matters. He had to his credit many a representations in High Courts and the Supreme Court of India.
A Masters in Nuclear Physics, Masters in Law from the University of Mumbai and a qualified MBA with specialisation in the marketing of services, he is pursuing his doctorate on value proposition in the M&A domain. He is on board of many Universities and on the editorial board of most legal journals.
Badrinath has successfully guided transformational initiatives for organisations and his zeal to provide solutions to his clients is always foremost in his mind. As an expert, he is frequently invited to deliver lectures at conferences and seminars and has received laurels for the same.
Bijoya Roy
Bijoya Roy has spent over two decades in the profession gathering experience across the globe. From her early days in Mumbai working for companies like Tata Housing, Asian Paints and Kodak, Bijoya went on to qualify as a Solicitor of England and Wales in 2008. She joined Thomson Reuters and spent 10 years with them, first as a senior lawyer in their EMEA team, based out of London and later being posted in Dubai supporting the global emerging markets of India, China, ASEAN, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Russia and parts of Europe. Ms. Roy returned to India in 2019 to join Flipkart as their Group General Counsel.
Her experience has seen her manage teams spread across geographies, some large and in excess of 50 lawyers and some much smaller. During the course of her professional journey, Bijoya has specialised in European Competition Law, technology laws and litigation strategy. Thriving in complex environments, her professional journey has taken her from real estate to data and technology, e-commerce and the consumer industry. From handling high-powered litigations with claims in excess of Euro 60 Million to tackling FDI-related existential crisis’, the Enforcement Directorate and Competition Commission investigations into the e-commerce sector, Ms. Roy has had a rewarding experience of honing her skills as an astute legal professional.
An ardent believer in diversity and inclusion, she likes to actively mentor and champion younger women lawyers looking to create their own growth stories.
Charanya Lakshmikumaran
Charanya started her legal journey with Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan (LKS) in 2007 with the intellectual property practice at the firm after completing her Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry followed by a degree in Law from Delhi University. After two years of working in the IP division, she moved to the firm’s tax practice and gained expertise in handling complex tax litigations in Customs, Excise, Service Tax, Anti-dumping, VAT and Income Tax.
Charanya has worked in the chambers of KK Venugopal, the Attorney General for India, from 2016 to 2019, where she worked on a wide range of subjects ranging from Constitutional Law, Arbitration, PIL, Electricity Law, Competition Law to Administrative Law. She assisted the Attorney General in landmark cases such as the inclusion of right to privacy as a fundamental right in the Aadhaar dispute, reservation in public employment, right to education as well as the recent challenge to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. She has also assisted him in advising various public sector undertakings and government ministries.
Charanya has achieved numerous accolades and recognitions from Legal 500, ALB, Asia Law for her knowledge, strategic outlook and understanding of legal nuances. She stands as an inspiration to the younger generation of aspiring lawyers. She strongly believes in contributing back to the society. She holds regular awareness lectures for small scale business units to educate them in the field of GST, competition laws and data privacy to build an informed community of professionals.
Dhwani Rao
Dhwani Rao is a Head Legal, IP, Digital & Human Resources at Nestle, South Asia. Before joining Nestle she started working from 2004 in a Law Firm for about 8 years. She started her journey with Nestlé as a Regional Legal Specialist for business units in 2012. Since then, she has supported South Asia Region markets in a wide variety of legal issues and dealing with contentious legal matters. She is also the Head of Data Privacy for the Region and a part of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council and focusses on embracing the diversity of gender, generation and culture.
She has also handled a wide variety of digital legal issues including privacy, crowd-sourcing, e-commerce, cloud computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, drones, augmented and virtual reality. Dhwani is appreciated by business and legal teams for the implementation of anti-counterfeiting measures in the SAR Region. She has also been integral in rolling out varied employment law-related policies across the organisation.
Before joining Nestlé, she worked at a law firm for almost eight years, advising several esteemed international and national clients on both domestic and international businesses on a wide variety of legal issues. She is currently a member of Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy, International Technology Law Association, International Trademark Association and Inter Pacific Bar Association. Dhwani was awarded in the Rising Star category (under the age of 40 years) for varied initiatives by Legal Era (2016); was specially mentioned at The Asia Pacific Legal 500 for the works delivered to the clients (2009-2010); awarded for varied initiatives in legal functions around IP litigation strategies, data privacy and managing cyber-bullying by Global Nestle Legal Awards.
Dr. Akhil Prasad
Dr. Akhil Prasad is currently a member of the board of directors of entities in Boeing group and an Advisory Board Member (Honorary), UPES School of Law. Having over 28 years of experience, his legal expertise goes beyond the Indian shores in the UK and the US and he has worked with Fidelity Worldwide Investment, The Walt Disney Company India, General Motors India, Electrolux Kelvinator, Xerox India and Modicorp and Essar Group(s). He holds numerous degrees including a Doctorate in Law and a Doctorate in Commerce. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators, UK (FCIS) and the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (FCS); a non-practicing Solicitor of England & Wales; a Masters of Law (Honors) program from the Northwestern University and a Certificate in Business Administration program from Instituto de Empressa, Madrid, Spain (IE), USA; leadership training under the program “Leaders Shaping Our Future”, conducted by Boeing Leadership Center, USA; andis an alumni of the Wharton Business School.
Dr Prasad is also a visiting faculty with premier institutions in India like the Indian Institute of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, National Law University, Delhi School of Economics, Indian School of Business, the Management Development Institute, OP Jindal Global University (OPJGU); Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law – IIT Kharagpur (IIT-Kharagpur); Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT); T. A. Pai Management Institute, Manipal (TAPMI); Jamia Millia Law School and Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University (FMS). Dr. Prasad has been recently granted a Global Talent visa by the Government of Australia. Dr. Prasad was nominated among the Top General Counsels in India by Forbes India (2021); Top 100 India In-house Counsel by Business World (2020); Team Power List India (2019) by Legal 500; GC Power List India (2018); Team Power List India (2017) by Legal 500, GC Power List India (2016) by Legal 500; 100 Legal Luminaries of India by Lexis Nexis; and among the Finest India In-house Counsels by the Indian Corporate Counsel Association.
Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat
Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat is a thought leader and a strategist with business orientation. On various contemporary legal and industry specific issues, as a commended speaker and author, he has shared his views in different national and international conferences.
Being one of the founders of the GCAI, Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat has been encouraging the cause of General Counsels’ statutory recognition. Traversing through wide-ranging industries like automobile, real estate, hospitality and manufacturing, his experience graph touches three decades. He was previously associated with Indian and multinational corporates like Dalmia Bharat, DLF, JCB & others. Dr. Gemawat is a post graduate and doctorate in law, a qualified Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant and a Chartered Secretary from India & the UK. He has been honoured as Top General Counsels of India by various prestigious institutions. Honoured as one of “India’s finest in house counsels”, the “Most Influential Corporate Counsel and Company Secretary” he has also been inducted to “Global Hall of Fame” for his contribution in the Legal Eco System in India and beyond. “It is high time that the Government should formulate a code of conduct for non-litigious services which can prescribe rules relating to competence, independence, integrity, conflict of interest and confidentiality,” expresses Dr. Gemawat.
Dr. Vivek Mittal
Dr. Vivek Mittal is currently the Global General Counsel at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Limited (DRL), an NYSE, NSE, and BSE listed multi-locational global generic pharmaceutical giant.
At DRL, he leads a team of about 75 lawyers and professionals covering a gamut of activities like domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, in-licensing, out-licensing, commercial agreements, domestic and complex cross-border civil and criminal litigation, arbitration, ethical and statutory compliances, data privacy, and data protection.
In addition to his existing role Global General Counsel, Dr. Mittal is also designated as DPO of DRL, he also oversees IPR, employment laws, regulatory issues, and corporate commercial advisory among others.
Dr. Mittal has a very diversified and successful multi-industry career spanning over 23 years with the latest stint being at Danaher Corporation, where he was Regional Counsel - METAI for Diagnostics Platform, Head of Legal at Lupin Limited and has been instrumental in critical roles at Reliance, Radico Khaitan, IndiaBulls, Caparo India and Mount Shivalik.
Dr. Mittal has been recognized and honored with multiple accolades from prestigious institutes like Legal Era, BW Legal World, INBA, and Legal 500. He is a regular speaker at such events and places.
On the academic background - he is a Ph.D. in commerce, a member of ICSI, a post graduate in commerce, and a graduate in law.
Jyoti Pawar
Jyoti Pawar is the Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel Global at Infosys. Her expertise reflects in transactions, contracts, litigation, digital projects and insurance for Infosys Limited and all its subsidiaries. She is a qualified Solicitor in England and Wales and also a member of The Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa and The Law Society of the UK.
Jyoti started her legal career as an advocate with Mulla & Mulla Craigie Blunt and Caroe - Advocates & Solicitors (1992 to 2000). Subsequently, she joined GE Capital India as the General Counsel (2000 to 2008).
Thereafter, until 2014, she held the position of the General Counsel and Director – Legal & Regulatory for India and South Asia in Bharti Airtel Limited. The Company was then India’s largest and the world’s third-largest telecommunications firm. Prior to joining Infosys, Jyoti practiced law for three years. Initially, she was a Partner-in-Charge of Economic Laws Practice (ELP), Delhi and Head of Telecom Media & Technology Practice, and later, the founding partner of JPA Law Firm.
She has held significant positions in various committees. It includes being the President of the Legal Committee of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and a Member of the Financial Inclusion Committee at FICCI.
Jyothi V K
Jyothi V K is the General Counsel and Vice President ( Legal) of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited, India’s leading fashion conglomerate known for its brands Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Pantaloons, Tasva, Sabyasachi, etc. A senior leader with over two and half decades of chequered experience in legal practice and in-house legal, she oversees legal risk management, and international brand acquisitions across diverse businesses of ABFRL. She advises on privacy and technology laws, civil, consumer, criminal, and company matters, real estate, POSH law, intellectual property laws, and brand licensing.
Her passion for continuous learning and staying updated in the profession led her to complete a resident master’s course at London in technology law from the prestigious Queen Mary University of London in 2022. She leads a team of 25 lawyers across India. Beyond her role, she serves as a member of the core advocacy committee of the Retailers Association of India. Earlier, she served as the Co-chair of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, Bangalore Chapter, in 2020-2021.
Jyothi speaks on IPR, technology, and privacy issues in national and international fora. In recent events, she has spoken on cybersecurity law, new age fraud, privacy law in D2C businesses, Digital Transformation and IP issues, metaverse, The Digital India Act, and Algorithmic collusion and anti-trust issues.
Jyothi is constantly driven by her passion for innovation; she has extensively introduced digitalization across verticals of the legal function starting in 2010. She devises innovative strategies and legal processes to forecast and mitigate legal risks. Automation of audit processes, video-based training, and certification of legal compliances, automation of approvals are a few. She wJyothiVK-high resolution-pic.jpgas recognized as an exceptional leader for functional excellence by ABFRL in 2020, GC of the Year by the Indian National Bar Association in 2019, and one of the most powerful women in IP by the World IP Forum in February 2023.
Having been into long-distance running for more than ten years Jyothi has participated in more than a dozen half-marathons and one full marathon, she is passionately engaged in yoga, running, and gymming. She also encourages her legal team to engage in a healthy lifestyle and creative hobbies and inspires them to give their best.
Kaizad Hazari
Kaizad Adi Hazari specialises in Business Advisory, Corporate M&A, Structuring and Business Strategy. He has handled high stake Litigations and Commercial Transactions including managing Regulatory Matters for different industries, Managed Intellectual Property Rights, Corporate Governance, Secretarial, Compliance & Corporate Affairs.
He handles complex matters globally on Anti-Trust Law, Patents, GDPR & Data Privacy, Sanction Controls, Statutory Compliance, PCA & ML, FCPA/UK Bribery Compliances and Investigations by regulatory agencies.
Mr Kaizad has held key positions like President & Global Head Legal, Compliance, IP & Corporate Affairs for Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Joint President - Head Legal with Hindalco Industries Ltd, General Counsel – South Asia for GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Raymond Group as Group Head Legal, Asian Paints, ICICI Ltd and was with Mulla and Mulla and Cragie Blunt and Caroe. He was also with HDFC Ltd for their Stressed Asset Fund.
Kanchinadham Parvatheesam
Kanchinadham Parvatheesam is currently the Corporate Secretary and Chief Legal Officer (Corporate & Compliance) at Tata Steel. Mr Kanchinadham’s most significant responsibilities include advising the Board on Governance and ensuring that the Members of the Board are ably equipped with resources to discharge their fiduciary duties and corporate governance practices.
He is also responsible for the Compliance Function of Tata Steel and the legal requirements of the company in the areas of Governance, Anti-trust, Corporate Actions and New Ventures. He also has oversight responsibility of the legal and governance matters of Tata Steel’s Investment in Subsidiaries, Joint Ventures and Associate Companies in India and Overseas.
Prior to joining the Tata Group, PK served as the Corporate Secretary and Chief Risk & Compliance Officer of Infosys. At Infosys, he was responsible for the Governance, Risk and Compliance function (including compliance with SEC Rules and Regulations).
Mr Kanchinadham serves as Member of the CII National Committee on Financial Reporting and on the CII National Committee on Regulatory Affairs’.
He holds a Master of Laws (Corporate Governance and Practice) Degree from Stanford Law School (Stanford University), Master of Business Administration Degree from the Sloan School of Management (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Degree from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning and is an Associate Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
Mr Kanchinadham is passionate about researching on contemporary governance matters and completing his doctoral degree. Towards this, he is under taking course work in Accounting at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
Kumar Ankit
Kumar Ankit is the Head–Legal, Policy & Compliance at Hindustan Zinc Limited. As part of the senior management team of the firm, which is India’s largest and world’s second-largest zinc-lead miner, he is at the helm of affairs in the departments dealing with corporate legal matters, litigations, risk mitigation, ethics and compliance and inorganic initiatives.
With over a decade of experience, Ankit has worked on critical litigation, non-litigation transactional matters and advises the stakeholders in areas of mining, environment, natural resources extraction, electricity, and public-private partnership (PPP) in the infrastructure sectors. He is an expert in manufacturing, admiralty and maritime, software and emerging technology, data governance, privacy, consulting, sports, and taxation matters.
He was previously the Deputy Head, Legal at Iron Ore and Steel Sector, Vedanta Limited. Prior to that, he served as Legal Counsel for Thomson Reuters (South-East Asia) and Legal Counsel for the US offices of Deloitte Consulting. A qualified lawyer from the National Law University, Gujarat, Ankit is a fellow member of several bodies including the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and an associate member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He is also an executive member of SAROD-Ports, a dispute resolution forum under the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
A regular contributor on topics of technology, dispute resolution, natural resource law with a specific focus on the environment, sustainability and governance, his significant experience in policy spheres has brought him immense appreciation from various prestigious forums.
L. Badri Narayanan
L. Badri Narayanan is a Executive Partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys. Badri Narayanan is a Partner in the Tax Practice of the firm and leads the M&A/Private Equity Tax Practice. He also co-heads the Corporate and M&A Practice of the firm. He advises domestic and international clients on all tax and corporate aspects of mergers, acquisitions, in-bound and outbound investments, foreign exchange controls, royalties and licensing arrangements, exits, dividend distributions and other transactional matters. He also advises on capital gains tax, digital tax and negotiations and disputes with the taxation authorities. He is involved with several government and industry bodies commenting upon tax and other legislative proposals including the transition to the new Goods and Services Tax regime in India. He has handled matters across many industries, with experience in the financial services, healthcare, technology, IT, manufacturing, digital, e-commerce and retail sectors among others.
Prior to joining the firm, Badri practiced as an intellectual property lawyer in the United States and has drafted and negotiated intellectual property licensing and cross-licensing arrangements. He was also involved in several patent litigation matters in the United States.
Badri has over 15 years of experience and is admitted to practice in India and New York. He is also a qualified patent agent in India. He is a member of the International Bar Association and the Chamber of Tax Consultants.
Badri regularly contributes to national, international publications and delivers lectures to raise awareness and share knowledge with the industry and his peers. He has been recognized widely for his expertise and has been conferred with numerous recognitions.
Badri holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Delhi and also a Bachelor’s degree in law from the University of London. With a Master’s degree from Cornell Law School, Badri’s positive attitude toward life motivates people.
M R Prasanna
Amarjit Singh Chandhiok is currently President-Elect of the Bar Association of India, which cumulatively represents as a voluntary body for almost the entire legal profession in India and is also the oldest one. Mr. Chandhiok is a SIMI (Singapore International Mediation Institute) accredited international mediator and mediation trainer.
He is the current President of Maadhyam – International Council for Conflict Resolution, and INSOL India. Maadhyam is a professional institution and an inter-disciplinary national body meant to develop and popularize arbitration and mediation as appropriate choices for resolution of conflicts. INSOL India plays a prominent role in developing the discipline of insolvency, turnaround and restructuring professionals with a view to restoring the economic value of underperforming businesses and developing a world-class insolvency regime in India.
Mr. Chandhiok is a member of the London Court of International Arbitration as well as the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). He was part of many an international and domestic arbitration, both as counsel as well as member of arbitral tribunals/sole arbitrator.
Mamta Rani Jha
Mamta Rani Jha has also considerable experience in the allied and emerging fields of Information Technology, Telecommunications, Media, and Anti-trust Laws. Her past experience of over 7 years in both civil and criminal litigation has equipped her with a unique approach to addressing complex issues and providing holistic solutions. Besides, litigation, she actively advises clients on IP licensing, auditing, contract drafting and negotiation, business venture evaluation, due diligence, online and offline anti-counterfeiting and border control measures, and regulatory compliances.
She has represented leading global pharmaceutical companies, as well as electronic and telecommunication giants in key patent litigation cases. She has also successfully handled trademark and design litigation for Fortune 500 companies across various sectors and advised clients on contentious matters pertaining to copyright law. She has also deeply emerged in the field of technology and is representing giant tech companies in the industry.
She has a rich background in the field of science and is a Gold Medalist in B.Sc. (Zoology) and LLB. She is a regular speaker at various IP fora. She has also authored several articles on emerging and contentious IPR issues.
Ms. Jha joined Inttl Advocare as an IP practitioner in 2007, after having practiced law for more than 7 years in various fields of law, such as constitution, land acquisition, service matters, banking and securitisation, criminal matters, family disputes, etc. Being a science student with a gold medal in Zoology (Hons.). Also, Patent Law being one of the niche fields of IP and requiring thorough knowledge in the field of science, attracted her to opt for this field of law.
She has had the privilege of briefing stalwarts like Mr. Gopal Subramanium and other seniors and has benefited greatly from their wisdom and experience. She has completed over 120 Patent Litigations with a 100 percent success rate. She is a regular speaker at various IP fora and has also authored several articles on emerging and contentious IPR issues. Particularly, she had the privilege of authoring the India Chapter of the AIPPI-Wolters-Kluwer Practitioners’ Guide to Anti-body Patenting. She is also presently the Chair of the INTA Oppositions and Cancellations Sub-Committee, India Representative of APAA Anti-Counterfeiting Committee, India Member of the AIPPI Biotechnology Committee and India Leader – AIPPI Study Question on Inventorship of inventions made using AI.
Ms. Jha is acting for Google LLC in several dynamic and critical aspects pertaining to Information Technology Law such as Right to be Forgotten, Data Privacy, and Compliance. She is also currently defending Nestlé against ITC allegations that it was passing off, under common law, the use of instant noodles sub-brand name ‘Magical Masala’. She has also represented various leading global pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis AG and has obtained various patents for the company. She has also represented one of the leading Indian Music Company in India before the Hon’ble Intellectual Property Board (IPAB) in the hearings pertaining to the fixation of statutory royalty rates for the radio broadcast of musical works and sound recordings and underlying works, under Section 31D of the Copyright Act.
Manjaree Chowdhary
Manjaree Chowdhary is the Sr. Executive Director and General Counsel at Maruti Suzuki India. With over 25 years of experience, she leads a team of 50 experts, working closely with the Board, the CEO and the Leadership team. She provides legal and compliance support in a dynamic regulatory and risk environment at Maruti Suzuki India, a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan. Manjaree has worked across South Asia, US, ANZ, and Japan in diverse industries like Industrial, Manufacturing, Auto, Healthcare, Power and Services. Skilled in strategic advisory, listed entity management, complex transactions, dispute resolution, enterprise risk, compliance and public policy, she has led industry initiatives including the formulation of a Voluntary Code of Ethics adopted by the National Healthcare Federation of India. At Maruti Suzuki, she has successfully led change management through incremental steps.
With a Masters in Law from the University of London, Manjaree made a mid-career shift from academics to law, beginning her legal career at a leading Indian law firm and moving in-house to General Electric before joining Maruti Suzuki as its first woman General Counsel. Under her leadership, Maruti Suzuki’s Legal Team was listed in the ‘Legal 500 GC Powerlist - India Teams 2019 for the first time and the Best In-house Legal Team (mid-size) by Legal Era in 2021.
Winner of the prestigious WeQual Asia Pacific Award in September 2021, Manjaree featured in the India “Top 100 Powerful Women in Law” in 2017 and was felicitated as one of the 25 General Counsels at the Indo-UK Law Society Summit at the House of Lords in London in November 2018. She was recognised by Legal Era as a Top Woman in Law (2019) and as the General Counsel of the Year (Female) (2020). In 2022 she was part of the elite list of Business World Top 100 GCs in India. Manjaree is a nominated member of the CII National Committee on Regulatory Affairs, is the Co-Chair of the CII Legal Services Committee on ESG and Climate Change and serves on the Board of the UK India Legal Partnership. She is the Founding Member of the General Counsels Association of India (GCAI).
Michael-James Currie
Michael-James Currie is a Director of Primerio and co-founder of the Primerio South African practice. His regulatory and commercial law practice is pan-African and he has practiced across several countries and regional blocs including Botswana, Egypt, Kenya, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, COMESA and CEMAC. Key areas of practice include commercial and corporate law, competition law and complex commercial litigation. Mike has consistently been recognised as a “Best Lawyer in South Africa” and also serves as the “Global Law Expert for Competition Law in Nigeria.” In addition to his practice areas, Mike is a regular speaker and author who has published several articles, papers and opinion pieces. Mike currently serves as the African Regional Representative for the International Bar Association’s Anti-Corruption Committee.
Neera Sharma
Neera Sharma is the Chief Executive & Legal Officer at Sistema Smart Technologies Limited. She is a University of California, Los Angeles, alumni and an experienced chief of legal with a demonstrated history of working in the telecommunications, real estate and IT industry. She is skilled in negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, legal compliance, complaint management, litigations, arbitration, and dispute resolution.
With over 24 years of experience, she has worked with several start-ups and developed teams from scratch while handling multiple responsibilities. As a member of the Board of Directors, she has always played a role that goes far beyond her position as a legal adviser.
Neera has been working closely with senior business leaders to develop corporate strategies across the region and acts as company representative in discussions with the government, the regulators and other stakeholders to help influence the policy decisions.
She has been recognised as one of the leading senior counsels of India. Neera is praised and has been awarded for her strong leadership skills and the ability to build business models that take into account complex legal outcomes. She is credited for being an excellent communicator with strong negotiation skills and having leadership qualities and analytical power.
Pulin Kumar
Pulin Kumar is presently working as a Senior Legal Director of Adidas (India). He has an extensive exposure of handling high stake cases in various High Courts and the Supreme Court. He has had an illustrious tenure as an in-house counsel dealing with commercial matters and other matters. He has extensively worked on the issues related to the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLAT) and Extradition Treaties with various countries and interacted with the legal counsels located at across the globe.
Mr. Kumar during his tenure with various organisations, have also been involved in execution of the foreign contracts and high-stake international commercial arbitration. Mr. Kumar is actively involved withvarious regulatory groups of business houses. He looks after the legal and compliance functions of adidas India and Reebok India. The mandate includes contract, compliance, litigation management, alternate dispute resolution, advisery of the legal commercial issues and a compliant business development.
Mr. Kumar is a commerce graduate from Patna University and Law graduate from Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi in 1991, followed by Master of Laws from Symbiosis International in 2020 besides a PG Diploma in IR&PM from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi. His professional journey started as an in-house counsel from Indian and MNC conglomerates like Montari Industries, Triveni Engineering, Ambuja Cements, New Holland Tractors, Jubilant Organosys and Samsung India.
Mr. Kumar has been a part of many significant best practices and improvements in the internal governance related to the corporate sector and has immensely contributed to this area. He has been actively participating in legal conferences both as listener and speaker. Mr. Kumar also co-hosts a knowledge-sharing platform “Sadgamaya” an informal association, founded by a few like-minded General Counsels and lawyers. He is well connected to more than thousand in-house counsels and lawyers in India and abroad through this forum meant for exchange of legal related knowledge. Mr. Kumar has extensively worked in the space of FDI in India and policies regarding wholesale cash & carry and single brand retail trading licence.
During his tenure he has coordinated with many state holders and handled multiple investigations and enquiries by different authorities together with multiple litigations pending in the courts.
The most significant achievement has been in laying the foundation stone of an important menace in India like parallel imports, says Mr. Kumar. During his tenure as the Legal Head for Samsung India, he initiated a legal case fighting against the menace of Parallel Imports which today is pending in the Supreme Court.
Mr. Kumar has been conferred with an award of the “General Counsel of the year 2015-Retail” by Indian National Bar Association (INBA), rated amongst top 50 General Counsels by LEGALERA magazine in 2016, legal team led by him has been included in The Legal 500 Powerlist: India 2017. He has also been included in the GC Powerlist: India as one of the Most Influential Lawyers in Business in the year 2016 and 2018 by Legal 500.com.
“The need of the hour is to have a complete harmony between the industries and the various regulations. Legal teams of the industries and the Government should work in partnership to give a complete boost to the economic development of the nation. Further, this team together can work hand-in-hand and promote overall growth and give a major thrust to boost mutual economic health of the sector and the nation,” says Mr. Kumar.
Panduranga Acharya
Panduranga Acharya is a seasoned legal professional and a veteran in the ecommerce industry. He is solution-oriented and a great decision maker. He has led complex transactions and highly performing teams in his career. His vast experience on sectoral regulatory issues is outstanding. Mr Panduranga has built high performance teams and has demonstrated great legal leadership in various organisations.
Mr Panduranga is a Law graduate from Bangalore University. After a brief period of court practice, he worked for various corporations. He carries 18 years of post-qualification experience as in-house counsel and has been associated with MobileStore, Videocon, Vodafone, Flipkart, Swiggy and CarDekho Group. His core competence includes, M&A Transactions Advisory, Business Structuring, Regulatory Compliances, Policy Advocacy and Real Estate Transactions.
He is a regular speaker on diverse legal topics and has been co-chair for FICCI Online Food Aggregator Working Group and currently Executive Committee Member, e-Commerce Law Section at INBA and member of CII National Committee on Regulatory Affairs.
Pathik Arora
Pathik Arora is an ardent legal professional with over 22 years of advising and servicing the market leaders in varied spaces like chemical and petrochemicals, Information Technology, real estate & construction, hotels & hospitality, renewable energy, infrastructure, health care, private equity and so on.He is also a fellow member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
His experience of working in house at leadership roles as well as in law firms extends across jurisdictions. It covers a broad spectrum of legal, secretarial, estate management, compliance & governance practice which includes strategic & business advisory, structuring complex commercial transactions incl. cross border M&A, due diligence (corporate & real estate), real estate acquisitions & investments, PPP, financing (including project financing), risk assessment, setting up robust compliance programs encompassing FCPA, UKBA, POSH, litigation managementand so on.
He has also been a regular speaker at various industry and legal conferences on the issues related to cross border M&A, compliance & governance, regulations, inbound investments, real estate & construction and renewable energy.
Pooja Sehgal Mehtani
As the General Counsel and a member of the leadership team, she is responsible for leading Legal and Corporate Secretarial affairs at Sun Life Asia Service Centres, in addition to heading the Information Technology Contracting Centre, the Knowledge Services Legal Vertical, which provides legal support to various geographies on technology contracts. She is responsible for shaping legal strategy with the rapid advancements in the IT/ITES industry, is focussed on Corporate Governance and is a key contributor to organisational planning and the decision-making team. She remains passionate about leveraging technology for automation and digitisation of Legal and Corporate Secretarial processes. She advises leadership and management not just on law and related matters but helps shape discussion about business issues. She renders support and advisory for driving various organisational and functional initiatives for transformation and innovation and towards building a future-ready organisation. She is also the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion representative of Sun Life Asia Service Centres.
Pooja has 20 years of experience and prior to joining Sun Life, she was the Legal Counsel, Company Secretary and Ethics & Compliance Officer at Suez. She also worked with Sanspareils Greenlands, as their Legal Counsel and Company Secretary.
Pooja is credited for setting up legal departments and spearheading the legal and risk processes for complex projects and transactions. She has also handled issues related to data privacy, contract and competition laws, labour and employment laws, contract management, litigation and arbitration matters.
Prasenjit Chakravarti
Prasenjit Chakravarti is a Partner in the M&A, Corporate group in the NCR office of Khaitan & Co, a full-service law firm with over 850+ lawyers having presence in Mumbai, NCR, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and Singapore. Mr Chakravarti has over 18 years of rich and diverse experience, and routinely advises domestic and international corporate clients on a range of issues concerning foreign investment (both inbound and outbound), joint ventures, strategic alliances, acquisitions and other business transactions including financial and technical collaborations, commercial, corporate and securities law. Mr Chakravarti brings with him a wealth of experience in M&A, Joint Ventures, Investments and Corporate Advice and is known for his pragmatic and solution-oriented approach which assist clients to navigate intricate M&A transactions and strategic matters and get them over the finishing line.
Few recent marquee deals which Mr Chakravarti led for Khaitan & Co are: (1) advised shareholders of Space Teleinfra Private Limited in sale of their 100% shareholding to Data Infrastructure Trust (backed by Brookfield, GIC and British Columbia) for circa USD 117.32 million and additional milestone-based consideration; (ii) advised Mitsui & Co. Ltd. in relation to acquisition of 56% shareholding of Bharat Insecticides Limited, producer of Insecticides, Herbicides, Fungicides Chemicals, Agriculture, by Bharat Certis Limited, subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd., Japan from the existing shareholders; (iii) advised Gateway Group in their internal corporate restructuring by a reverse triangular merger involving listed company; (iv) advised Acme Solar Holdings Private Limited in sale of 39% stake to Investment Fund for Developing Countries and 10% stake to UNOPS S3i in Acme Solar’s 250 MW solar project in the state of Rajasthan; and (v) advised Harley-Davidson in relation to distribution and brand licensing agreements with Hero MotoCorp.
Mr Chakravarti is also a prolific contributor in M&A space and has played a tremendous role in creating awareness in M&A landscape by being actively involved in imparting legal education on M&A topics for M&A professionals including via authoring articles, disseminating informative short videos like on term sheets, confidentiality agreements, break fees and reverse break fees and Contractual Alliance v Joint Venture, M&A Masters series on a range of topics including Earn Out and Purchase Price Adjustment and How to Structure Business Acquisitions, Due Diligence etc.
Rabindra Jhunjhunwala
Rabindra Jhunjhunwala heads the Firm's IBA, UIA, France desk and Germany desk initiatives. He also sits as an officer on the IBA Corporate and M&A Committee. He is a Counsellor to the President, Union Internationale des Avocats.
His practice spans a range of areas, including domestic and cross-border M&A, PE investment, transaction documentation work and advises his clients regularly on all aspects of foreign investments (both inbound and outbound) and regulatory approvals. He has advised several multinationals and Indian companies on complex and big-ticket M&A transactions.
Rabindra has many awards and recognitions to his credit. He regularly gets ranked by leading legal publications like ALB Super 50 Lawyers, Asia Leading Lawyers, Chambers & Partners, IFLR 1000, Legal Era, Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, Asian Legal Business, India Business Law Journal (IBLJ) and many more for his expertise in Mergers & Acquisitions.
Rabindra has many awards and recognitions to his credit. He regularly gets ranked by leading legal publications like ALB Super 50 Lawyers, Asia Leading Lawyers, Chambers & Partners, IFLR 1000, Legal Era, Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, Asian Legal Business, India Business Law Journal (IBLJ) and many more for his expertise in Mergers & Acquisitions.
Rajbeer Sachdeva
Rajbeer S Sachdeva was previously Senior Executive Director and Group General Counsel at DLF Ltd and prior to that worked as a Global - Head Legal with Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. He has extensively worked in the domain of Merger and Acquisitions, Competition & Antitrust laws, Real Estate Transactions, Intellectual Property and Trademark matters and Arbitrations in India and abroad. Mr Sachdeva hasalso been dealing with various matters relating to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, after successful acquiring a Company under CIRP from NCLT.
He is an alumnus of Delhi University with an LLB and LLM and has about 32 years of experience as a Corporate Lawyer. His personal philosophy for work includes that the task would be completed with diligence and timelines should be strictly adhered to with all compliances in place. While work life balance is important it is also equally required that work should be given a priority over other aspects.
He views the role of a Corporate Lawyer as an advisor to business teams on various intricate matters and legal tasks should be completed meticulously and with precision. The emphasis should be to effectively handle the transactions and litigations after taking into account the business perspective which is utmost important for taking a final view and to provide solutions to the business team. The role of the Corporate Counsel is a strategic and the advice given to the business team must be practical and business-oriented.
A Corporate Legal Counsel needs to be innovative and provide solutions to real-life business problems and should always take into consideration the ideas and suggestions provided by the business team which helps in the decision-making process.
As a General Counsel it is very much required that legal issues should be managed, looking at the complexity and the risk involved and it is important to provide correct advice to the business team with proper analysis.
Rajeevan Nair
Mr. Rajeev Nair an Associate General Counsel in the Global Legal Affairs team of HP Inc. responsible for leading legal support for HP’s business and global delivery centres in India and Asian Emerging Countries. In addition, he is also the Business Unit Counsel for Personal Systems and lead for employment laws for HP in the Asia Pacific & Japan region. Rajeev started his career as a practising counsel before the High Court of Kerala, and subsequently moved to in-house roles, having worked with MNC corporate groups like Unilever, ING Group and HSBC in his career spanning over 21 years.
Rajiv Choubey
Rajiv Choubey is the Group General Counsel at Dalmia Bharat. Before joining Dalmia Bharat, he was the Chief Legal Officer at ACC Limited & Ambuja Cement Limited where he headed the legal, secretarial and compliance functions at ACC, which is part of Holcim, the world’s largest cement and building materials company. At ACC, he also advised the management on the entire gamut of business activities including corporate laws, mining, environment and competition laws, commercial and industrial laws, mergers and acquisitions, governance, risks and compliance. He was also a member of the Executive Committee of the Company.
He is an alumnus of the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, the Indian Law Institute, the Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi, and the Institute of Company Secretaries. He is also a director and board member of Bulk Cement Corporation of India, Lucky Minmat Limited, Singhania Minerals Private Limited and joint-venture companies of ACC and the Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corporation Limited.
With over two decades of experience in manufacturing and information technology companies, prior to joining ACC, Rajiv was the General Counsel of HCL Info systems; Vice President - Legal and CS at Vedanta Limited. He also had a brief stint at Maruti Suzuki, and Hindustan Tin. While working at Sterlite/Vedanta, he also handled listings in the US - New York Stock Exchange. Along with his team, Rajiv has been recognised by various forums including the Indian Business Law Journal (‘IBLJ’); the Indian Corporate Counsel Association (‘ICCA’); the Corporate Counsel Association of India (‘CCAI’); the Indian National Bar Association (‘INBA’); Legal 500; IDEX; and IOD as one of the Leading In-House Counsels/Teams.
Rajesh Jha
Rajesh Jha, an expert lawyer headed Legal & Compliance for South Asia, ASEAN & AMET (Africa, Middle East, Turkey) at Reckitt, a purpose-led organization, which he joined in 2007. Reckitt operates in Health, Hygiene & Nutrition sector. He looks after brands like Dettol, Disprin, Moov, Gaviscon, Durex, Neurfan, Clearasil’s Harpic, Lyzol, Veet, Enfamil to name a few.
Rajesh led the acquisition of Paras Pharmaceutical managing within Reckitt’s fold,having a scale of OTC drugs, which helped in building Reckitt Healthcare portfolio. Rajesh also led the sale of personal care business to Marico and helped with the contentious dispute with TTK Group which is Reckitt’s JV Partner, bringing Durex & Kohinoor within RB fold. Rajesh has chaired many corporate restructurings, including the formation of Joint Ventures in the Middle East.
Rajesh has been a part of legal action that has allowed him to help settle the law, in India related to indirect and direct taxation, including tax benefits under Section 80IC of the IT Act, CE Act and VAT laws. Reckitt, in 2015, was the first one to triumphantly challenge, the extent of DPCO, 2013, role & responsibility of NPPA, in connection to Price Control issues. Reckitt’s action, under Rajesh, allowed him to settle the law of disparagement, in the field of IPR protection, inclusive of the disparagement action of the Competitor.
An LLBand a Masters in History, from the University of Delhi, Rajesh began his career in 2000, with Corporate & Litigation practice with one of the most reputed Law Firm, in Delhi. During this period, he was not only involved in 1st two big divestments of Govt of India – Hotel Corporation of India (Centaur Group) and India Tourism Development Corporation (Ashok Group) but also appeared in most of the High Courts of India representing various big Corporates.
Till date, he is involved in setting new boundaries every year for himself and for the legal team of Reckitt as well.
Rakesh Bakshi
Rakesh Mohan Bakshi is the Vice President-Legal and Associate General Counsel at Amazon. With over 26 years of experience in telecom, information technology and e-commerce, he has seen the three waves of growth that the Indian economy has gone through since 1990. He started with Fujitsu and managed an end-to-end procurement of multi-million dollar transactions with the Department of Telecom, Government of India.
He was a part of the India Leadership Team that helped establish Microsoft’s business in India in 1998. At Microsoft, he led a team of 17 specialists in the legal, public policy and CSR space. One of the highlights of the time was the conceptualisation and execution of the zero-piracy program by Karnataka state. It was the first of its kind in the world that helped establish Bangalore as the Silicon Valley of India in 2001.
For the adoption of Information Technology in the under-served manufacturing clusters across India, Rakesh assisted in establishing Project Vikas, a program launched by Bill Gates in partnership with the Indian government. He was the second person hired by Amazon in India to launch its marketplace and leads a team of 30 lawyers and legal professionals.
Rakesh has served in key committees of several leading industry bodies. He was recognised as Asia’s first Annual IP In-house Counsel of the Year, India (2010). He ranked among the top 50 lawyers in India by Lex Witness.
Rakesh Prusti
Mr Rakesh Prusti is an experienced General Counsel (GC) with over 26 years of successful history of working in diverse industries and complex ecosystems across geographies. A transformational change enabler, he is a problem solver, a firm believer in empowerment and is known for inspiring and enabling his team for superior performance.
Mr Prusti is the Group General Counsel at OYO, a technology platform that empowers the large yet highly fragmented global hospitality ecosystem. Trusted by his business partners and stakeholders for his complex problem-solving abilities, Mr Prusti is a key member of the leadership team at OYO. He is also a member of the Risk Management Committee and the boards of group companies at OYO.
Over the last 17 years in GC Roles, Mr Prusti led global and domestic strategic and inorganic initiatives, managed cross-border mergers & acquisitions, financing, high-stakes dispute resolutions, enterprise risk management, board management, corporate governance and compliance framework, international legal strategy, key policies training, corporate restructuring and policy advocacy. He has been instrumental in establishing accountability-based talent grooming for leadership roles, encouraging his team to partner with CXO groups and management for effective delivery. Throughout his career, Mr Prusti has partnered with the world’s leading legal firms for transactions, litigations and corporate matters.
At OYO, through 2018 and 2019, he led multiple billion dollars fundraises for its subsidiaries and JVs driving the company’s global expansion. He led the acquisition of @Leisure Group in 2019, which is now part of OYO’s Europe vacation home business and operates multiple brands, including Belvilla, DanCenter, Traum and others. He was also a key leader in raising TLB funding from global institutional investors for OYO of $660mn, a first for an Indian company.
At Max Healthcare, Mr Prusti led the acquisitions of Saket City Hospital and Pushpanjali Crosslay Hospital, which in aggregate doubled the bed capacity of Max making it one of the leaders in quaternary and tertiary healthcare in India. He was instrumental in transforming their medico-legal processes and setting up a fully customised online compliance program that mapped every part of the hospital and business operations with system-supported reporting to the Audit Committee, one of the first in-house lead initiatives for healthcare companies in India.
At Carrefour, a $100 bn company, as a Senior Director for India, he led the partnership discussion while setting up legal, compliance and governance functions from scratch, working closely with the global GC and M&A team and on-boarding global policies from the headquarter in Paris.
In 2001, Mr Prusti started his first General Counsel stint at NIIT and set up a digital workflow-based corporate governance system and broad-basing customer base with millions of dollars’ revenue pipeline and leading M&As/JV negotiations in the UK and Europe. Before that, he served in various functions at ChrysCapital invested Global Vantedge and Cottage Industries Exposition.
Mr Prusti holds a bachelor’s degree in law and science and is also a Company Secretary and Cost & Works Accountant (Intermediate). He lives in Gurgaon with his wife, Komal and sons, Adarsh and Advik. In his personal time, he loves taking trips to national parks with his family to learn and grow his interest in wildlife photography. His sons share his passion for golf and are taking up the sport in their formative years.
Sachin Kalra
Sachin Kalra is the Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at HT Media Limited (Group). Having pursued his Master’s degree from Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune, he completed post-graduation and joined as a faculty of law with the same university. Soon, he decided to take up law as a career and became a practicing lawyer in litigation. Subsequently, he specialised in corporate law and intellectual property rights law.
In his prior assignments, Sachin headed and represented the legal functions of Bharti AXA, Bharti Retail, Samsung (South-West Asia), Vodafone India. He possesses a wide experience of handling a diverse range of legal matters in different industries including insurance, telecom, FMCG, retail, real estate, electronics, consumer durables, education and media.
He has always been open to challenges and learning and never hesitated in taking up new tasks in any sphere. However, with a penchant for research and a love for academics, he continues to hold a keen interest in interacting with and tutoring law students on a wide array of subjects beyond the rote learning of textbooks.
As a General Counsel, Sachin has been bestowed with several prestigious awards.
Sameet Gambhir
Sameet Gambhir, FCS, LLB, is a Senior Corporate legal professional and Company Secretary with around 30 years of industry experience. Presently he is the Vice President (Corp. Law) & Company Secretary of DCM Shriram LTD in New Delhi.
Mr Gambhir’s expertise includes Regulatory & Corporate legal matters, Corporate Governance & Compliances, Corporate restructuring, M&A, RBI & FEMA matters, ESG, SEBI Regulations, Industrial & labour Laws, Contracts & Agreements, litigations, Risk management, IPR matters, brand protection, data privacy issues, due-diligence, and investigations. He carries vast experience in Corporate Secretarial matters including handling Board meetings, Committee meetings and shareholders meetings.
He has done Leadership Effectiveness Programme from IIM- Bangalore as well.
Mr Gambhir is enlisted as one of the Top In-house Counsels by Forbes India in its Powerlist-2022. He is a member of National Committee on Regulatory Affairs of CII and also of Corporate Affairs committee of PHDCCI. He is a member of Board of Study of GD Goenka Law School also.
He was felicitated with the Global LexFelcon award, 2022 in the field of Governance & Compliance in Dubai by LexTalk World. He was also awarded as one of the most influential Corporate Counsel and Company Secretary by ACoS in 2019. The team led by Sameet in DCM Shriram Ltd won the best compliance team of the year consecutively for two years - by LegalEra in 2020 and by Kamikaze in 2019. Sameet has also been featured among India’s leading lawyers in compendium released by ICCA and also among the shining stars of India Legal fraternity as released by CCAI.
Mr Gambhir is a regular speaker on various seminars / conferences / Webinars and also guest lecturer at various Management and Law Institutes. He is also a member of Company Law Task Force of ICSI, Faculty / Member of committee on CSR Certification course of ICSI. He is Regular speaker / faculty at various programmes organised by Institute of Company Secretaries (ICSI).
Sandeep Chowdhury
Sandeep Chowdhury is the General Counsel, Compliance Officer, Senior Management Member and also in the Board of group companies. With 20+ years of experience in retail, FMCG, chemical, pharma, manufacturing, EPC and service industry and have played pivotal role in cost control, risk management, leading complex transactions (both in India and abroad) and collaborating with key stakeholders for effective business support.
Recipient of Legal 500 GC Powerlist award, the Top In-house lawyer award from IPR Gorilla, Mr. Chowdhury is the Group General Counsel for HCC Ltd, one of the largest infra and EPC Company of India. He looks after legal, regulatory and compliance matters and manages a team of lawyers and leads his team across various verticals.
He is passionate about developing a proactive, connected and metrics-driven culture. In his role, Mr. Chowdhury provides necessary advice and guidance to Senior Management and Board Members. He also manages outside counsel, handles large, complex transactions and litigations, looks after budgets and is focussed on developing the capabilities of the in-house team.
Some of his key area include corporate and commercial contracts, joint ventures, arbitration, litigation, competition law, employment, securities law, compliance, GDR listings (at SGX and Luxembourg), corporate governance, re-structuring etc. Mr. Chowdhury is a rank holder Law graduate from the University of Calcutta and had done leadership courses from Harvard Business School and Walton Institute.
He started his career with the eminent lawfirm M/s Khaitan & Co. specialising on taxation, litigation and a civil advisery matter. His inclination to general corporate legal work made him move to the corporate world wherein he has worked at senior levels in organisations like Walmart, Coca Cola, Baxter, UPL, Lafarge India, OLA, HCC Ltd., both in India and abroad.
He has managed legal, compliance, regulatory and risk management portfolios with teams spread across various jurisdictions. Mr. Chowdhury believes in integrity and personal ethics and has rich experience on US FCPA, having conducted various training and investigations in the matter. He has handled numerous foreign litigations including the Private interest ones in US and Australia.
He has worked on mergers and acquisitions on Global level. He drove the culture of integrity, accountability and compliance in various organisation by introducing certain initiatives. He had supervised teams comprising of members from different countries and had, inter alia, helped business in devising high level strategies and procedures to protect and safeguard the interest of the organisation. He is also a prominent speaker in various legal and compliance forums.
Mr. Chowdhury travelled widely for business purposes to countries like China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, France, Brazil, Australia, and United States.
Sanjukta Kulkarni
Sanjukta Kulkarni is the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Larsen & Toubro Infotech Limited (LTI) responsible for the global legal portfolio of one of the fastest growing IT companies. She is also a member of the Management Council and Risk Operating Committee at LTI. She has diverse experience in leading deal negotiations of several fifty plus million US dollar commercial contracts across US, Europe, Australia and Middle East while heading as deputy of Legal function at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, TCS eServe, Capgemini India and Tech Mahindra.
She has well over 25 years’ experience of managing legal activities at large MNCs while holding leadership positions.
Ms. Kulkarni is a double Master’s degree holder from Stockholm University in Sweden and Aberdeen University in UK. Over the course of her career, she has advised management on several matter related to compliance, employment law, government investigations including interactions with US Department of Justice and Indian law enforcement officials such as CBI, litigation including managing US class action suits, advised on whistle-blower investigations, formation of JVs, mergers and integration activities, Data Privacy breach management and general policy matters including on rebadging employees in Europe, India and Middle East.
Ms. Kulkarni has keen interest in mentoring teams and has also been a speaker at several legal industry forums. She has also been recognised as a Star Woman Lawyer of the Year and General Counsel of year at reputed legal forums. Presently, she is keen in exploring legal issues in the metaverse and is a champion of diversity at senior levels.
She spends her free time exploring new art works of Indian Artists, interior designing. She is an enthusiastic gardener and passionate about food that touches the soul. She is hopeful to open a beautifully designed space combining her passion of Art, Interiors and Food.
Shashank Jain
Shashank Jain presently works as VP & Head Legal with TATA SIA Airlines Limited (Vistara), where he reports to the Board and CEO on all legal matters and a wide array of compliance issues. Shashank regularly advises and devises risk mitigation strategies from change in laws in India and 15+ foreign countries. He leads the ABAC, AML, Competition Law, and Data Privacy compliance programs. He also directly handles all key commercial contracting work such as aircraft financing, leasing and contracts with OEMs, and manages all other contracts. He also takes care of all employment law matters, is the custodian and manages IPR and brand portfolio. He also handles litigation in India and 10+ foreign countries. He has won many peer reviewed awards including those from Chambers & Partners, IBLJ and ALB.
Shujath Bin Ali
Shujath Bin Ali is the Global General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer at Re Sustainability Limited. A graduate in Commerce and Law, he has done Masters in Law in Alternate Dispute Resolution & International Commercial Arbitration. A Fellow Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, he has attended executive education programs on strategy, general management and leadership from Harvard University, Massachusetts, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and National Law School, Bengaluru. He was also a member of Toastmasters International and lead various initiatives in the development of leadership and communication skills for professionals and students. Shujath served as Senior Director-Legal, Risk Management & Company Secretary and Compliance Officer at Parexel International–India, providing strategic corporate legal advice and operational legal support for India operations. Prior to that, he was a Senior Legal Counsel & Corporate Secretary for International Paper-India.
He worked as Associate Vice President-Legal & Corporate Secretary for Deloitte US-India offices and has overall 21 years of experience in the areas of governance, compliance, risk management and corporate, commercial and employment laws. He is credited for working in diverse industries like pharma, information technology, professional services and manufacturing.
Shujath was awarded India’s Finest In-House Counsels by Indian Corporate Counsel Association, supported by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Law & Justice; named as one of the Top 100 General Counsels in India by Legal 500 (2016 and 2018); bagged the Young Achievers Award – Top 40 young lawyers under the age of 40 by Legal Era; Top 100 General Counsels in India by Business World, Forbes India (2020); and Top 10 Chief Compliance Officers in India by CEO Insights (2020). Shujath regularly speaks at the national and international conferences and presents white papers for professional journals on topics relating to ESG, Sustainability, Governance, Risk & Compliance Management, Leveraging Technology.
Shweta Bharti
Shweta has about 2 decades’ experience in dealing with a variety of intricate strategic legal needs and reliefs for her valued clients. Her expertise ranges from Constitutional Law, International Law and Corporate Laws and Litigation to Human Rights and International Arbitration. Shweta provides an ideal combination of consistent high-quality expertise derived from immense transactional experience and innovative thought in providing solutions to delicate transactional-legal needs. Shweta brings together the perfect blend of litigation strategy and business practices, meeting the business needs of clients. With more than a decade of dealing with dispute resolution needs and reliefs of clients, she has represented clients in all facets of corporate litigation and strategy.
Recognised as one of the top women dispute lawyers in Asia by Benchmark Litigation, Shweta is highly respected and acknowledged for her ability to handle the most critical and complex matters and has been continuously praised by BW Businessworld, Asian Legal Business, Asialaw Profiles and many more.
Shweta considers it a responsibility to guide clients through the legal system with both skill and tact. For her, being aligned to the client’s business needs is most important, and she advises accordingly without falling into the trap of immediate gains. Clients have always recognised her as a legal practitioner with excellent oral articulation, well-written communication, and most importantly – good listening skills, besides being up-to-date with the latest developments in the law.
Shweta represented and advised the client in India’s first BOT project, against termination of the concession agreement by the Government on grounds of expropriation or compulsory acquisition. The issue involved premature termination on account of excessive traffic, and the necessity to build an additional two lanes on the National Highway stretch. She was instrumental in securing a ruling in favour of the client, whereby the court directed that the interim order of stay of termination would continue until the award was passed by the Arbitral Tribunal.
Shweta is an alum of the Asian Forum on Global Governance of the ZEIT-StiftungEbelin and GerdBucerius, Germany and the Observer Research Foundation and also acts as the External Female Member of the Complaint Committees formed by various organisations pursuant to the Vishakha Guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of India in order to put in place a grievance redressal mechanism against sexual harassment of women. Shweta is hugely respected and recognised by Courts and legal luminaries/senior counsels in practice, and has been called upon by various ministries and departments of the Government of India on various legal reform's issues.
Apart from being on numerous boards of directors of prestigious Companies, Shweta has held numerous positions of leadership in the legal community, both within India and internationally. Shweta has been the JCM – India for Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA); Chairperson of IPBA’s Environmental Law Committee; General Secretary, Society of Women Lawyers (SOWL); and is a very active member at international forums including the International Bar Association (IBA), Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) and I-Tech Law.
Sonal Basu
Sonal regularly speaks at various reputed forums and educational institutions including IIM Bangalore and has been a faculty member for a seminar course on ‘Cloud Computing’ at the National Law School, Bangalore. Sonal has also co-authored a write-up on ‘Bitcoins’ and ‘Data Science to Drive Good Governance’ which were published in international journals.
Sonal, an active volunteer with an NGO that emphasizes the importance of children’s education, holds a BLS, LLB degree from Government Law College, Mumbai and a post-graduate diploma in Intellectual Property Rights Laws from the National Law School of India University. She has a Master of Laws degree in Corporate and Commercial Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She has also completed her executive leadership program from Cornell University, USA.
With several articles authored by her on IT and outsourcing to the credit, Sonal has been recognized as one of the top General Counsels in India for two consecutive years by BW Legal World and listed amongst the finest in-house counsels by the Indian Corporate Counsel Association.
Suchita Saigal
Suchita Saigal is the General Counsel at Cleantech Solar. She joined the Company, a leading provider of renewable energy to corporations in Southeast Asia and India, in February 2021 as the Assistant General Counsel to head their India legal team. In December 2021, she was promoted to Acting General Counsel (India and SEA) and in March 2022 she was confirmed as the General Counsel (India and SEA). Suchita has 12+ years’ experience in top tier law firms across jurisdictions and leading power companies. She advises on transaction structuring, acquisitions, project development, project financing, litigations and disputes, and other operational matters.
Suchita started her career as a trainee lawyer at Clifford Chance, London, and thereafter, joined its Energy and Infrastructure practice as an associate, advising on key cross-jurisdiction financings and acquisitions, including the acquisition of the biggest residential solar rooftop portfolio. Subsequently, on relocating to India, Suchita worked with the Projects practice in JSA and Trilegal. In 2016, she moved in-house to join the CLP India (now Apraava Energy) legal team.
In 2019, Suchita received the CLP India Service Excellence Award. The CLP India legal team was recognised as a leading in-house team by Legal 500 and was included in the prestigious GC Powerlist India Teams. She was a finalist for the Women Lawyer In-House Category (2020) by the Asian Legal Business Awards and a finalist in the Young Lawyer – In-house Category (2019) by IDEX Legal Awards. Recently, she was recognised as a leading lawyer by the World Intellectual Property Forum.
Sujeet Jain
Sujeet Jain is the Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer at Nykaa. He has led legal, regulatory, company secretarial, compliances, mergers and acquisitions and corporate affairs functions across organisations. His ability to combine business, law and technology has been the hallmark of his career. His accounting qualifications enabled him to discover that financial issues are intertwined in complex legal problems. He thrives on building teams and systems and processes to enable the organisations to scale to the next level.
His career began as a Company Secretary, but he soon realised his passion for law and joined a law firm. His keen intertest to solve business legal problems led him to move to corporate firms. He is now a seasoned General Counsel with over 25 years of experience in diversified sectors including technology, telecom, media and entertainment and cement.
Sujeet started his corporate journey with Hutchison Max Telecom (Vodafone Idea now) when telecom sector was in evolutionary stage and never looked back. He did his MBA from Warwick Business School, UK and believes that it was a turning point for his corporate career and life in general. Post that, he worked with People Group (Shaadi.com). He had a stint with Viacom18 and played an important role in the launch of critical businesses including Colors and Voot and fought landmark cases in the media and entertainment industry. He has received numerous industry awards including the Best General Counsel at a young age. Under Sujeet’s leadership, the legal teams have won numerous Best In-House Team awards. He has been regularly featured in the Top General Counsels listing including Legal 500.
Surender Sharma
Surender Sharma is Director, Legal & Company Secretary at Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited. Being part of the Board and Leadership Team at Colgate India, he uses his more than two decades of industry experience in helping the Management to devise business strategies, risk identification & mitigation strategies and Corporate Governance.
Prior to joining Colgate, Surender had worked as an In-house Legal Counsel in Companies like Marico, Heinz India, Reckitt Benckiser, Taj Group and Maruti Suzuki. Other than India, he also handled legal issues pertaining to Bangladesh, South East Asia, Middle East & North Africa Region.
He has established a reputation of solving complex business problems and introducing simplification of Legal tasks with the aid of technology. He takes keen interest in driving Ethics and Compliance Culture across the organization and developing the next line of legal talent.
Under his leadership, his team has won Legal Era Awards 2020-21 for “Small Size Legal Team of the Year '' and “Legal Excellence Award'' from Corporate Counsel Association of India. He was the winner of “In- house Counsel Award” by India Business Law Journal in 2021.
Tejal Patil
Tejal Patil is an industry expert with more than 29 years of expertise in legal, compliance, risk and governance across Asia Pacific. She has given strategic and risk advice to CEOs, senior management and the Board of Directors, assisting in ever-increasing growth, keeping company’s safety in mind as well.
In her role as General Counsel for Wipro, Tejal heads the Legal & Compliance, Global Data Privacy and Government Affairs functions. She is also part of the Wipro Executive Council.
Before joining Wipro, she was working as the Senior Legal Advisor for OYO Hotels and Homes since September 2020. Tejal joined OYO after a 19-year successful job in the global conglomerate, GE (General Electric Company) where her role was as a General Counsel of GE South Asia. Her prior experience includes Asia Pacific roles with GE’s healthcare, consumer, industrial, and aviation businesses, as General Counsel based in Singapore and Tokyo.
At OYO Hotels and Homes, Tejal was also a primary member of the OYO Global leadership team where she was responsible for the legal function of OYOs in the region which includes managing regulatory, contractual and legal compliance for the company. This has helped in driving OYO’s strategic decisions, disputes resolution and helping the senior management with actionable counsel on strategic business decisions and operational execution.
A qualified solicitor at both the Bombay Incorporated Law Society and the Law Society of England and Wales and a certified Six Sigma Green Belt, Tejal is a member of the FICCI Corporate Laws Committee and also the founder member of the prestigious General Counsel Association of India.
Tejas Karia
Tejas Karia is a Partner with the Dispute Resolution Practice at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and also heads the Firm’s Arbitration Practice. His expertise spans across international and domestic commercial arbitrations, corporate & securities litigations, general corporate advisory, and diverse aspects under the information technology law including data privacy and confidentiality.
Tejas has extensive experience handling a broad range of complex, high-value international and domestic commercial disputes and frequently advises clients across diverse industry sectors including oil and gas, real estate, construction, and private equity, amongst others. He has represented clients in arbitrations before the LCIA, ICC, ICADR, ICA and SIAC, as well as the Supreme Court of India and various High Courts.
His well-regarded contribution to policy formulation across the arbitration domain endows Tejas with a deep understanding of issues that enables him to present solutions that deliver effective resolutions for his clients.
Tejas has advised on the drafting of amendments to a number of key Acts including the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 and the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Bill, 2015. He has also been a part of the high-powered committee set up by the Government of India for institutionalisation of arbitration in India.
According to Chambers and Partners 2019, “Tejas Karia is a respected arbitration lawyer with substantial experience representing clients in joint ventures, shareholder agreements and private equity disputes.” He has also been recognised as a ‘Leading Lawyer’ in dispute resolution by Asialaw Profiles consecutively from 2012 to 2021 and listed as a ‘Global Leader’ by Who’s Who Legal (WWL): Arbitration. WWL: Arbitration 2019 quotes, “Tejas Karia wins high praise from sources who note he is very knowledgeable about arbitration practice and always endeavours to meet the client's demands" Benchmark Litigation 2019 recognised him as a ‘Dispute Resolution Star’ (for commercial & transactions and construction).
Tejas has been recognised as ‘Distinguished Practitioner’ for Dispute Resolution by Asia Law Profiles, 2020-23 and amongst ‘ALB Asia Super 50 Disputes Lawyers 2022. Forbes India recognised him among the Top 100 Individual Lawyers as part of their Legal Powerlist, 2020-21.
Vandana Seth
Vandana's reliability, organisational style, problem-solving approach, flexibility, commitment to excellence and optimism makes her one of the most notable lawyers in the field.
With more than 11 years of experience, Vandana’s profile is a combination of a law firm role, an in-house role and a consulting firm. A lawyer as well as a CS, Vandana is an excellent team worker who joined Themis Associates (a boutique law firm based out of Bangalore) in 2011. Her role at Themis was to lead a team for handling the pre- and post-actions related to funding transactions. Working for more than 50+ successful VC and PE transactions over a span of 3 years, in the same profile, Vandana worked on a lot of automation projects like compliance management, Term sheet automation, Nominee director training and related compliance automation and so on.
Post the role in the law firm, Vandana approached and joined Merger and Acquisition (Tax) team at Deloitte, wherein the major role she handled was end-to-end advisory and implementation of various mergers, demergers and other strategic transactions.
A go-getter personality who believes in converting impossibilities to possibilities, Vandana presently heads the legal, secretarial and compliance verticals of TATA 1MG Group. Her job focusses on managing the entire legal, regulatory, compliance, secretarial, fundraising, IPR and certain operational aspects.
Vandana, who was awarded as ‘Women in Law Excellence Awards,’ 2021, instituted by Legal Era for Recognising Leadership, Innovation, and Achievements of Women Lawyers, completed her course in Company Secretary in 2010. Vandana has been awarded with 40 under 40 Rising Star Awards 2021 by Legal Era, CCAI Legal Excellence Awards - Ecommerce Lawyer of the year, Global Lex Falcon Awards- 2022- GC (above 10 years) and Forbes Power List 2021- Top General Counsel of the year.
Well-connected to a number of lawyers, professionals, researchers and students, she is also a member of many committees, forums as well as groups and helps in exchange of legal know how.
She has been graduated from Lucknow University in 2011.
Zameer Nathani
Zameer Nathani is the Senior Vice-President & General Counsel at UFO Moviez India Limited (Public Listed). He joined UFO Moviez, India’s pioneering technology company for digitisation of cinema theatres in India, in 2018. He is an LLB, LLM (Civil, Corporate, Criminal, Customs, International Laws), PLD (Harvard Business School), Executive MBA (NMIMS), and has certifications in IPR, Electronic Commerce and ADR from WIPO, United Nations, M&A (Harvard Business School), Private Equity (London Business School) and US IP Laws (Stanford University).
Zameer started his practice in 2002 and was a law firm attorney for reputed corporate like Eureka Forbes, LG Electronics, TCL India, Motul Oils, Ginger Hotels, Kale Consultants Software UK, Johnson & Johnson, Johnson Diversey and other multinationals from the US, UK and Asia Pacific. He joined the corporate world, becoming the Associate Vice President of Reliance Entertainment – Digital Businesses to head the legal affairs globally for all the digital businesses (gaming, e-commerce and OTT platform). Thereafter, he became Head-Legal for Balaji Telefilms (Public Listed), a renowned production house for TV serials, movies & OTT, reporting to Founder and MD Mrs. Shobha Kapoor, followed by becoming Director – Legal for the iconic clothing brand Raymond (Public Listed) to head the legal team for retail, manufacturing, FMCG, real estate, engineering, aviation etc. under the brand Raymond, Park Avenue etc.
Roopesh Jain
Roopesh is a commerce and law graduate. He is also a qualified Company Secretary and Cost & Management Accountant. He has more than 25 years’ experience advising businesses in Legal, Compliance and Taxation matters in his role as General Counsel with several reputed companies like Hitachi, Daikin, Menarini, Lloyd, SPL etc. in Consumer Durables, Pharma, Oil and Gas, Construction and Finance sectors. He has wide experience working with Indian entrepreneurs and MNC’s engaged in Manufacturing as well as Services sectors.
Roopesh is currently working with a BSE NSE listed and American-Japanese Joint Venture - Johnson Controls Hitachi Air Conditioning as its General Counsel, and designated as Deputy Vice President – Legal & Secretarial. He is based in Ahmedabad.
Shagoofa Rashid Khan
Shagoofa has over two decades of experience in private equity, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic initiatives, corporate and commercial laws, compliance and ethics advisory, audit and finance roles. In her career span of over 23 years, she was an in-house counsel for 10 years with leading Indian corporate houses. At NIIF, she is the Group General Counsel and Head of Corporate Affairs and is based out of the Mumbai office. Prior to joining NIIF, Shagoofa was a Partner with Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM). At CAM, she headed the Investments Funds practice and specialised in Private Equity investment advisory for infrastructure, real estate, and financial services sectors.
She has advised global and domestic fund houses in structuring and setting up of their cross border as well as domestic funds, including combination structures and fund of funds. She has advised large institutional investors (including pension funds and sovereign funds) on their strategic and platform investments in India. She has also played an active role on the policy advocacy front by being part of committees constituted by the regulators, providing support to industry associations such as IVCA and APREA and assisting clients on representations to Government ministries and regulatory bodies. Prior to joining CAM, Shagoofa was the Senior Director and Head Legal and Compliance at IDFC Alternatives.
Vikram Jeet Singh
Vikram Jeet Singh is a Partner in BTG Legal Service's New Delhi offices, heading their Tech, Media, and Communications (TMC) practice group. Vikram has almost 20 years of experience in advising Indian and overseas clients on complex legal issues relating to digital business, data privacy, fintech regulations, online gaming, and platforms.
Vikram’s areas of expertise include advising on matters relating to digital payments, fintech, banking regulations, non-banking regulations, and financial services. His clients have comprised banks, NBFCs, fintech majors, merchants, payment service providers, and other participants in the payments chain. Vikram also advises a number of gaming platforms, applications, and games studios on offering games and other content in the Indian market. In addition, Vikram advises on data protection and privacy regulations, cybersecurity, Internet intermediary regulations, and online content matters.
Vikram’s work has also included India entry advise, review of proposed products and offerings, risk analysis for new or existing business models, contracting relating to tech, and advise on payments regulations.
Prior to joining BTG Legal, Vikram was at other Indian law firms advising on IT, telecom, fintech, media, and regulatory matters. He graduated from the National Law School of India University in 2004.
Deepika Chaudhry
Deepika Chaudhry is the Executive Director – Legal at APAC Xerox, India. She is a seasoned professional with a successful track record of executing strategic leadership roles across legal, compliance, public policy and government policies. She has been managing Asia-Pacific (APAC) and global roles across diverse industries including services, information technology, telecom, insurance, consumer products and manufacturing.
An experienced advisor to the Boards, she possesses an extraordinary ability to manage shareholder and joint-venture partner relations in addition to being a trusted business advisor. An expert in legal representation to the regulatory bodies, she leads them to favorable outcomes. She successfully partners with business teams and has deep knowledge and expertise in commercial transactions, corporate, mergers and acquisitions, litigation, intellectual property, FCPA, UK Anti-Bribery, and country specific compliance and regulatory laws across the US, the UK and APAC countries.
An effective communicator, Deepika builds strong relationships with all stakeholders including shareholders, boards, government and regulatory bodies, partners and the legal fraternity. She is a trusted advisor with keen business acumen and an exceptional ability to find out-of-box solutions. Her experience of working across nationalities and diverse cultures has enabled her to nurture talent and building high performance teams across geographies, skills and cultures. Throughout her professional career, she has received recognitions and awards including being felicitated with Female General Counsel of the Year Award by Legal Era (2014) and recognized by ICCA publications (2017 and 2019).
Srivals Kumar
Srivals Kumar is an Executive Vice-President and Head Legal in Sunteck Realty Limited. He is an award winning Corporate Legal Consultant having an enriching experience for over 25 years as in-house counsel in reputed companies like Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices, Star TV, Mumbai International Airport, Flipkart.com, Rustomjee and Sunteck Realty Limited.
Mr Kumar holds an LLB degree from the Faculty of Law, Delhi University (1995) after graduating in BA Economics from Delhi University (1992). He also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) from Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan in New Delhi.
During his distinguished corporate experience, he has handled issues ranging from Contracts, Statutory Compliances, Litigation as well as Business Advisory to operations/business teams on day-to-day issues from a Legal or Regulatory angle. In addition, Mr Kumar has exposure working in the highly regulated sectors of Telecom, Media, Airports and Real Estate which has thrown lots of challenging issues to deal with. He has a passion for strategic litigation and has handled very high stake litigations with a very high success rate.
He is a regular speaker at various industry forums, legal seminars, and a guest faculty at the reputed law schools/Universities in India.
Mr Kumar has won many awards for his legal acumen like ‘Legal Achievers Award 2019’ for Professional Excellence & Distinguished Service in the corporate sector by Justice (Retd) Dipak Misra, former Chief Justice of India. He is also applauded as "Policy & Regulatory Lawyer of the Year" 2020 by the prestigious Legal Era magazine at its annual awards in March 2020. He is also selected as “My GC100” 2021, part of the top 100 General Counsels in India by Business World Magazine in May 2022.
Wg. Cdr. Sivarama Krishna Prakash
Wg. Cdr. Sivarama Krishna Prakash is the Legal & Regulatory Affairs Director (Telco) at Zoom Video Communications India. A multifaceted lawyer, his experience in legal facets includes arbitration, banking, commercial and engineering contracts, cyber law, eDiscovery, escrow, intellectual property, litigation, labour laws, procurement, privacy, telecom laws, compliance and software licensing. Having commenced his career with a short stint in the Central Bank of India, he soon joined the Indian Air Force, spending the first seven years in the administrative branch as an Air Traffic and Radar Controller. Later, he moved to the Judge Advocate Department where he worked for 16 years before taking premature retirement in 2009.
His stint in the corporate world began with the legal department of IBS Software Services followed by Cisco and ZVC India. Sivarama is the first IAF officer to undergo the prestigious Judge Advocate Staff Course with the US Air Force at the JAG School in Montgomery, Alabama. He was the Command Judge Advocate in two major Operational Commands of the IAF.
He is a qualified software programmer and was involved in the automation of monitoring systems for more than 3500 court cases and also in digitising references to various JAG directives. Sivarama is a fellow member of the Institute of Directors, founding Supporting Member of the Federation of Data Protection Professionals of India and a Certified Global Privacy & Data Protection Auditor.
Manish Lamba
Manish Lamba is the General Counsel at DLF Cyber City Developers Limited. Having done his Bachelor of Law from the University of Delhi, he attained a rich experience of over 25 years in the areas of corporate laws advisory, litigation, commercial matters, capital market, intellectual property, corporate restructuring and compliances.
Prior to joining DLF, he worked as a General Counsel with Bharti Realty Limited, Bharti Retail Limited and as Vice President – Corporate Legal at Bharti Enterprises Limited. He was General Manager – Legal at Bharti Airtel Limited and a Senior Associate at Vaish Associates.
Later, he moved to the corporate world and became the In-house Legal Counsel of Coca-Cola. Subsequently, he got associated with Bharti Group and worked for their telecom, infrastructure and real estate retail sectors.
Manish regularly delivers lectures on arbitration, corporate restructuring, compliances and legal reforms at meets. He has represented the industry on various forums and actively participated in the Legislative Consultative process. He has been on the user council of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. He has also been a part of the Legal Committee of ASSOCHAM, PHD Chambers of Commerce, FICCI and the Gurgaon Chambers of Commerce founding member of Sadgamaya a legal think tank.
Rajiv Dutta
Rajiv Dutta is a Supreme Court-trained Mediator actively involved in the conduct of mediations at the Supreme Court Mediation Centre. He is a Country Representative for India at the International Bar Association (IBA) Mediation Committee. He was a Member of the IBA Mediation Committee for drafting IBA rules for investor-state mediation. He has been appointed as the Vice-Chair of the Sports Law Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA) and to the Panel of Arbitrators of the Pacific International Arbitration Centre (PIAC), Vietnam. He is also an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has been elected Vice-President of the Bar Association of India. He is a former elected Vice-President of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
Mr. Dutta has also served as a Visiting Professor (Comparative Law) under the Senior Lawyers Program of the Centre for International Legal Studies, Salzburg, Austria, at the Palacky University, Faculty of Law, Olomouc, Czech Republic in spring, 2016.
Being a First Generation Lawyer, Mr Dutta has contributed for strengthening the Legal institutions in India and abroad. He is also a founder and director at the CESR (Centre for Entertainment and Sports Resolution). His keen interest in Sports Law and Environmental Law led to two leading judgments, one by the National Green Tribunal which led to the framing of National Forest Fire Policy titled Rajiv Dutta versus Union of India (Original Application No. 216/2016). The other one delivered by the Delhi High Court also titled Rajiv Dutta Versus Union of India (W.P. (C) No. 8734 of 2014) which led to change in the National Sports Development Law in India.
“Rajiv Dutta is a Country Representative for India at the International Bar Association (IBA) Mediation Committee. He was a Member of the IBA Mediation Committee for drafting IBA rules for investor-state mediation.”
Supratim Chakraborty
Supratim is a Corporate and Commercial Partner at Khaitan & Co. He specialises in corporate and commercial transactions such as mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and general corporate law advisory. Supratim has advised eminent clients in information technology laws in India including data privacy and cyber security related issues. He has advised several clients on anti-bribery / anti-corruption law related issues as well.
Supratim has been part of several prominent M&A transactions and assisted domestic as well as foreign clients in structuring, drafting, negotiating and implementing complex deals.
Arindam Roy Chowdhury
Arindam is a corporate lawyer with focus on technology laws and commercial transactions. Arindam graduated from law school with specialization in Intellectual Property Laws and also an electronics engineer. Arindam is also a Patent Agent with the Indian Patent Office. Arindam is responsible for advising technology businesses on the entire spectrum of legal initiative and structuring complex deals in ensuring compliance to regulatory requirements. Arindam also manages multiple boards with a strong focus on governance, ethics and integrity. Arindam is currently working with cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks as their Managing Counsel for India and SAARC.
Siddharth Srivastava
Siddharth Srivastava is a Banking and Finance / Restructuring and Insolvency Partner at Khaitan & Co. Over the past years, he has extensively worked for leading banks and financial institutions and advised clients on syndication, debt restructuring, project finance and structured finance matters. He has also advised clients in the sphere of insolvency resolution process in various capacities such as counsel to resolution professionals, representative of financial creditors and operational creditors and advisor to investors / bidders.
Nivedita Rao
Nivedita is highly experienced in a range of corporate areas and specializes in mergers and acquisitions and court based restructuring, both domestic as well as cross border. She also has extensive experience in private equity investments, joint ventures as well as a range of corporate advisory matters across industry sectors. She has advised on a significant number of high-profile and complex M&A transactions spanning multiple jurisdictions, and is an expert in issues pertaining to structuring, documentation and implementation of M&A transactions and advising on regulatory issues including under foreign investment and SEBI laws.
Stephanie Keen
Stephanie Keen is a dual-qualified partner in global law firm Hogan Lovells based in Singapore and heads the Corporate & Finance practice in Asia-Pacific. She focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, employment, private equity and venture capital funds across various industries, including technology and telecoms, private capital, financial institutions, life sciences and healthcare, energy, and consumer.
Stephanie is a highly respected lawyer among her peers and clients not only in Singapore but across our network globally. She has been listed as a leading female transactional lawyer in the IFLR1000 Women Leaders and in the Singapore A-List of Top 100 Lawyers by the Asia Business Law Journal in recent years.
Stephanie is regularly recognised as a leading M&A and private equity lawyer and has been named "Best in Private Equity" by the Asia Women in Business Law Awards in 2021. She is also a key member in driving the firm’s India practice and has most recently been listed as one of the world’s Top International Lawyers for India-related matters by the India Business Law Journal (IBLJ).
Stephanie is a dynamic supporter of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, recognising its importance both to the firm and board in Singapore and the global firm as a whole. Stephanie heads up the diversity committee in Singapore, sits on the firm's global diversity committee and has been appointed Regional Head for Diversity in Asia-Pacific for the firm's corporate practice group.
Stephanie has been praised by market commentators as being a “formidable lawyer who is one of our go-to professionals for our acquisitions and exists” and “good at strategy work but also good at details”.
Jacky Scanlan-Dyas
Jacky Scanlan-Dyas is a partner in the Tokyo office of Hogan Lovells. She is the regional lead for Corporate in Japan, the co-lead for the global Manufacturing and Industrials Industry Group, and a member of the firm’s global M&A leadership committee. Jacky has over 25 years of cross-border transaction experience across the full range of structures, including M&A, investments, joint ventures, and complex commercial contracts. Jacky’s extensive international experience and results-orientated approach enable her to navigate cross-cultural issues that arise in multi-jurisdictional transactions. She knows how to get deals done, having advised numerous major Japanese corporates, funds, and trading houses on corporate transactions all around the globe—in particular India, South East Asia, Latin America, the U.S., and Europe—as well as many international investors from these regions on their investments and businesses in Japan.
Jacky joined the Hogan Lovells London office in 2001 and, having lived in Japan for almost a third of her life, moved back to Tokyo to launch the Japan M&A transactions team in 2009. In 2023, her efforts leading the Japan M&A practice were recognized when Hogan Lovells became one of just a handful of international firms ranked Tier 1 for M&A in Japan by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific. Most recently, she was awarded “Woman Lawyer of the Year” at the 2023 Asian Legal Business Japan Law Awards.
C. V. Raghu
C. V. Raghu is the Group General Counsel at Motherson Group. He drives the legal, secretarial, regulatory, compliance and governance processes across the globe for the Motherson Group, one of the world’s fastest-growing and most admired automotive brands. With over three decades in the legal domain that encompasses a diverse set of industries including large business conglomerates like Max Group, American Express and Hindustan Unilever, he has served on several Boards & Committees since 1998.
Raghu was a member of the working committee of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India for harmonising corporate governance guidelines for the insurance sector and on the CII taskforce on dispute resolution. He is a qualified lawyer from the University of Delhi, a diploma holder in industrial relations and personnel management from the Sardar Patel College of Communication and Management, and a certified associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.
A trained Six-Sigma Black Belt, he has also undertaken extensive classroom training on negotiating skills and techniques organised by George Washington University at Harvard Law School. He has completed Master class for Directors leading to a Certified Corporate Directorship issued by the World Council for Corporate Governance. He has also been a part of the Bourse Course – a seven-day intensive program on treasury, forex dealings and money markets and received a certificate from the Regional Treasury, American Express, Singapore.
Nish Shetty
He specialises in dispute resolution, with a particular focus on international arbitration, restructuring & insolvency and regulatory work. He regularly advises on complex cross-jurisdictional disputes including arbitrations and is widely recognised as a leader in the field of dispute resolution in the region.
Nish is on the panel of arbitrators of most of the key arbitral institutions in the world.
He is the founder and ex-chairman of the SIAC’s Users Council, the Co-Chair of the Council of Arbitration of MCIA and the first in Asia to be appointed as a Judge of Appeal on the FIA International Court of Appeal in Paris. He is also inducted in the Hall of Fame for arbitration in Legal 500 and named as a Thought Leader for Arbitration by Who’s Who Legal 2021.
Ajay Bhargava
Ajay Bhargava is a Dispute Resolution Partner at Khaitan & Co. In his areas of practice, Ajay has advised and represented matters in Supreme Court, High Courts, Arbitration (International and Domestic), Quasi-Judicial Tribunals (National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and National Green Tribunal, etc.). He advises on Constitutional matters, Civil & Criminal matters, IPR laws, Employment Laws, and on corporate – commercial disputes. He also advises on matters before the Police Investigation Wings relating to corporate criminal investigations and quasi-criminal prosecutions (white-collar crimes).
Gaurav Juneja
Gaurav Juneja is a Dispute Resolution Partner at Khaitan & Co. He has advised and represented clients in proceedings for over 15 years in different areas of domestic and foreign commercial litigation and arbitrations, particularly in international EPC arbitrations in the energy, infrastructure and resources space. He has also advised and represented leading manufacturers of iron, steel, thermal power and cement before Mines Tribunal, various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. He represents clients across different forums including the Supreme Court of India, High Courts, District Courts, and different tribunals (including the Mines Tribunal and the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal).
Setting out names of the Khaitan & Co speakers and the sessions below.
Leena Tibrewal
Leena is a corporate lawyer with over 15 years of experience in corporate law, contracts, legal tech & automation. She started her journey with Sesa Goa Limited (Vedanta group) wherein she was responsible for managing litigations, regulatory compliance, govt relations and policy implementation. She has strategized and advised the company on litigation before Supreme Court, Bombay High Court and National Green Tribunal. With her deep interest in technology, she has brought tremendous changes in the regulatory compliance for the company with infusion of technology and has successfully adopted Contract Management, Litigation Management, Compliance Management etc for the Company. She also has keen interest in POSH act and it's strict compliance and has been active member of POSH committees at various organizations. She on pro-bono basis also takes sessions on POSH compliance for the Companies for its wider reach and understanding.
With the gained experience in the corporate sector she started her own venture to merge her legal expertise with technology and founded “my-Contracts” in 2014 with key focus to infuse technology in the legal sphere. Her solution my-Contracts is being used by more than 100 leading companies globally including companies like Mercedes-Benz, JSW Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Abbott Healthcare, Razorpay Solutions, Ashok Leyland, Quess Group, Pidilite industries, Bajaj Auto, STTelemedia, Yokoham, MaxLife Insurance etc.
my-Contracts: Contract Management Software is a complete end-to-end contract life-cycle management solution which helps corporates to digitally manage their contracts right from contract request, procurement/sourcing, due-diligence/ KYC, Vendor finalisation, drafting, online contract negotiation, contract approval process, deviation approvals, e-stamping & e-signing till timely renewal and amendments. The solution provides smart analytics & reports based on various parameters to help General Counsels & Senior Management get a hold on the contracting process & mitigate contractual risk. It also has embedded Microsoft word functionalities & a live chat box to help legal users in drafting & negotiating contract terms on real-time basis.
Leena was recognised for “Best use of Technology & Innovation” in the legal sphere at the Idex Legal Awards 2019. She was also one of the final contenders for Agami price (Shamnad Basheer Award) 2022 which celebrates ideas impacting the field of law and justice and has been listed in “Top 10 Best Women Leaders in Legal Consultants -2023” by Women Entrepreneur Magazine. On the other hand, her solution my-Contracts was listed as top 10 legal technology service providers by CIO Review India in 2019.
Dr. Manoj Kumar
Alongside leading Hammurabi & Solomon Partners (ranked as a top 20 amongst Indian Law Firms by the prestigious Asian Legal Business) as its founder & managing partner, Dr. Kumar is also the Vice-Chair of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), Vice-President of the Society of Indian Law Firms, Vice-President of the Society of Construction Law UK – India (SCL-India), visiting fellow with Asia’s Top-ranking think tank – Observer Research Foundation (ORF), an expert with the UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab, visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), editorial board member of Thinkers 50 India, independent director on Corporate Boards, distinguished arbitrator and an alum of the prestigious Harvard Business School & National Law School of India.
Dr. Kumar has built up a strong thought leadership relevant to the continuing economic and regulatory challenges of the country, providing the highest quality service to his ambitious clients. His ability to identify & access the right government officials & provide an inside perspective of how the government operates and how its actions can affect the clients positioned his leaders in the league. Engaging extensively across various sectors of the Indian industry, Dr. Kumar is involved closely with industry bodies and think tanks in various capacities and responsibilities.
Dr. Kumar is named as one of the 100 Legal Luminaries of India by LexisNexis and also successively by the Indian Business Law Journal (IBLJ - A-List of top 100 lawyers of India) and has been ranked the best in the ‘Policy & Regulation’ practice by IBLJ back to back for over a decade. Dr. Kumar has also been awarded and recognised by various national and international publications such as IFLR1000, Asialaw Profiles, Asian Legal Business, Forbes India including the best Managing Partner of the Year by BW Businessworld, to name a few. Notably, Dr. Kumar was Conferred the prestigious Mahatma Gandhi Samman at the House of Lords, London and is also an Honorary Professor of the Academic Union of Oxford, the UK for business & economy.
The involvement of Dr. Kumar on various Boards of reputed companies as also on platforms for policy formulation, recommendation and prediction go a long way in bringing strategic value to the clients. He provides a more foundational understanding of the dynamics of the environment they need to operate in India and also helps them actually bring about policies and regulations which benefit clients tremendously over time. Be it changing dynamics of the country or the development of new policies like the Companies Amendment Bill, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code Amendments, Regulation of Online-Gaming in India, Data-Protection & Privacy, EU-GDPR, Energy & Mining Laws, International Arbitrations Rules, Taxation of Non-Smoking Tobacco, Telecom Policy compliance by Telecom Companies etc., Dr. Kumar has always ensured to be the first movers in the country.
Dr. Kumar is a distinguished author, strategist, columnist, thought leader and called upon by top-of-the-line Indian and international institutions including the World Bank, IBA, ABA, CII, SILF, SCL, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Bar Council of Kerala, Indian Law Society, Cochin Institute of International Arbitrations for contributions, counsel, discussions and training on various key issues. Dr Kumar is also the past guest editor of the fall issue of American Bar Associations (ABA) India Legal News, a patron of Doctors for You (Doctorsforyou.org) and chairs the India Strategy Group, International Legal Advocacy Network and India Unites Foundation.
Arush Khanna
Arush Khanna is a Partner at Numen Law Offices. Arush Khanna (MCIArb, MMIArb) started his practice in 2012 after graduating from the Symbiosis Law School, Pune. Thereafter, he successfully completed his Masters (Business Laws) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore.
Arush has pursued counsel practice under Mr. Sanjeev Anand, Senior Advocate, Delhi High Court after starting his career at Karanjawala & Co. In 2019, he co-founded Numen Law Offices, a multi-disciplinary law firm in 2019 establishing offices at New Delhi and Mumbai.
In 2017, Arush was appointed India’s National Representative before the Young Lawyers Committee (YLC) of the International Bar Association. He now holds the positions of the Asia Pacific Regional Forum Liaison Officer and the Scholarship Officer of the YLC. He is on the steering committee of the India Working Group of the IBA and also of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (YMG, India). In 2022, he was re-appointed by the Confederation of Indian Industry to their ‘Task Force on Legal Services’.
He was recognized as a “Rising Star” by the Asian Legal Business and one of the “Future Legal Leaders” by the India Business Law Journal in 2021. In 2018, he was awarded by the Legal Era Group as the “Young Achiever of the Year (30 years and below)” and was also awarded as a “Young Achiever” at the Economic Laws Summit by the Legal League Consulting.
Arush is a steady contributing columnist in well-known publishers like the Indian Express, India Business Law Journal and Legal Era. Arush is also on the Advisory Board of several student led-initiatives like Led-ex and ADR-Hoc. He conducts lectures regularly at several reputed universities like the Symbiosis Law School, Indore Institute of Law and the UPES School of Law.
