Based on the collective views of in-house counsel and private practice lawyers in India. The following are the top India-focused lawyers at international law firms.
The International A-List is based on extensive research conducted by India Business Law Journal. Biographies and contact details, where provided, are written by the lawyers themselves and have not been independently verified.
Click here to read the editorial report that accompanies the A-List.
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Sheila Ahuja Partner Allen & Overy Singapore |
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Babita Ambekar Partner DWF Singapore |
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Talat Ansari Partner Kelley Drye & Warren New York, US |
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Robert Appelbaum Partner Webber Wentzel Johannesburg, South Africa |
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Philip Badge Partner Linklaters Singapore Singapore |
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Arun Balasubramanian Partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Singapore and Hong Kong |
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Clive Barnard Partner Herbert Smith Freehills London, UK |
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Ulrich Bäumer Co-head of India practice Osborne Clarke Cologne, Germany |
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Jamie Benson Director Duane Morris Singapore |
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Manoj Bhargava Partner Sidley Austin Singapore Tel: + 65 6230 3987 (D) ; +65 9116 2627 (M) Email: mbhargava@sidley.com |
| Key practice areas: Capital markets |
| Manoj Bhargava focuses on cross-border India transactions, particularly equity and debt capital markets. He has a substantial practice, advising clients on initial public offerings, follow-on offerings and private placements, including US Securities and Exchange Commission-registered offerings and listings on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and the stock exchanges of Mumbai, London, Singapore and Luxembourg. He also advises on mergers and acquisitions and private equity investments and dispositions. He has more than two decades of experience and has advised on almost 150 offerings and other transactions for Indian companies. He has represented corporates, investment banks and investors. He also has experience working on transactions in China, Australia, Europe and the United States.
Manoj is recognized as a leading lawyer in several legal publications, including “A-Lists” and several of the transactions he has advised on have won awards or recognition. |
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Sidharth Bhasin Partner Shearman & Sterling Singapore and Hong Kong |
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Gautam Bhattacharyya Partner Reed Smith London, UK |
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Raja Bose Partner K&L Gates Singapore |
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Andrew Brereton Partner King & Spalding Singapore |
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Geoffrey Burgess Partner Debevoise & Plimpton London, UK |
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David Cameron Partner Dorsey & Whitney Hong Kong |
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Bill Carr Head of India Desk CMS Cameron Mckenna Nabarro Olswang London, UK |
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Biswajit Chatterjee Partner Squire Patton Boggs Singapore and Dubai, UAE Tel: +65 8157 6204 (Singapore) +971 56 188 1925 (Dubai) +91 8220 333 519 (India) Email: biswajit.chatterjee@squirepb.com |
| Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate transactional (M&A and PE); corporate commercial; regulatory |
| Bis Chatterjee is a corporate partner and serves as co-chair India practice and leads the US securities laws practice focused on India, SE Asia and Middle East. Bis divides his time between Singapore and Dubai, and works closely with teams across SPB’s global footprint of 54 offices and 1,700 lawyers.
Bis focuses on equity and debt capital markets, corporate finance, M&A and PE transactions in SE Asia and Middle East. He has worked across industries, including technology, fintech, energy, financial services, defence, infrastructure, real estate, retail and hospitality clients. He also supports Indian clients and conglomerates growing their global operations on commercial matters, as well as corporate and employment issues. Bis has also worked on a range of regulatory issues, including economic sanctions, government procurement, white collar investigations, corporate governance issues and other regulatory disputes. Bis is highly ranked by Chambers & Partners, IFLR, Best Lawyers, Legal 500 and other legal directories. Chambers Global has consistently (2010 – 2019) ranked him a highly regarded lawyer and confirm client testimonials that include “very professional and extremely thorough”, “solution oriented”, “extremely knowledgeable about India and Indian client requirements”, and a “tough negotiator” who offers clients “incredible personal attention”. Under his stewardship SPB has been top-ranked for equity offerings in India by Bloomberg (2018), Thomson Reuters (2019) and Prime Database (2016 – 2019) league tables; and was recognized as India Desk of the Year (2017, 2019) by Thomson Reuters IDEX awards; and as International Law Firm of the Year (2019) and International Capital Markets Law Firm of the Year (2017) by Legal Era. Bis has worked on a number of landmark transactions, including on the US$4 billion Government of Indonesia MTN, US$2.3 billion SB1 Q1P, US$3.4 billion Coal India 1PO, US$1.2 billion PFC FPO, US$1.3 billion SBI Life Insurance 1PO, US$1.5 billion New India Assurance IPO, US$160 million Fairfax acquisition of Indonesian insurer, US$615 million NALCO OFS, US$250 million PFC OFS, US$1.1 billion Power Grid FPO, and the US$340 million Equitas Finance IPO. 11 of his transactions have been selected as Deal of the Year transactions in the last four years by India Business Law Journal. |
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George Cyriac Partner Stephenson Harwood Singapore |
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Mark Davies Partner King & Spalding Tokyo, Japan |
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Valerie Demont Partner Shepperd Mullin New York, US |
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Sanjeev Dhuna Partner Allen & Overy London, UK |
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Arvind Dixit Partner Corrs Chambers Westgarth Melbourne, Australia |
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Rustam Dubash Head of India group Penningtons Manches London, UK |
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Rajeev Duggal Partner Skadden Arps Singapore |
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Mike Duggan Partner, Head of India Group Addleshaw Goddard London, UK |
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Sunil Gadhia Partner Cleary Gottlieb London, UK |
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Peter Goldsmith Partner Debevoise & Plimpton London, UK |
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Pallavi Gopinath Aney Partner Allen & Overy Singapore |
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James Grandolfo Partner Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Hong Kong |
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Richard Gubbins Senior Consultant Ashurst London, UK |
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Nipun Gupta Co-Head India Strategy Group Bird & Bird London, UK |
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Rajiv Gupta Partner Latham & Watkins Singapore |
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Rahul Guptan Partner Clifford Chance Singapore |
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Simon Hall Partner Slaughter and May London, UK |
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Sunny Handa Partner Blakes Montréal, Canada |
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Azmul Haque Partner Collyer Law Singapore |
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Savi Hebbur Corporate partner Linklaters London, UK |
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Ranbir Hunjan Partner Clifford Chance London, UK |
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Martin Imhof Partner Heuking Kuhn Luer Wojtek Dusseldorf, Germany |
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Naomi Ishikawa Partner Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Singapore |
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Narayan Iyer Finance Partner, Head of India Group Linklaters London, UK |
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Abhimanyu Jalan Partner Clyde & Co Dubai, UAE |
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Sushma Jobanputra Partner-in-Charge Singapore Jones Day Singapore |
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Sunil Kakkad Partner Gowling WLG London, UK |
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Rahul Kapoor Partner Morgan Lewis Palo Alto, US Tel: +1 650 843 7580 Email: rahul.kapoor@morganlewis.com |
| Key practice areas: Technology transactions; life science transactions; intellectual property; M&A |
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With a focus on global commercial, intellectual property, and technology transactions, Rahul Kapoor advises clients on strategic alliances, joint ventures, and corporate partnering transactions in the technology and life science industries including a focus on India. He handles patent licensing, supply and distribution agreements, spinoffs and core technology licenses. Rahul also advises clients on IP due diligence issues in connection with mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, and corporate financings. Rahul is the leader of the India initiative and co-leader of the Technology initiative at Morgan Lewis. He is also the local practice group leader of the Silicon Valley and San Francisco corporate and business transactions practice. In addition to practicing law, Rahul taught an IP strategy class for 10 years at UC Berkeley School of Law. Morgan Lewis is a global law firm with offices in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. |
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Raj Karia Head of Corporate Norton Rose Fulbright London, UK |
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Ankit Kashyap Partner Sidley Austin Singapore |
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Amit Kataria Partner Morrison & Foerster London, UK |
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Srinivas Kaushik Partner Kirkland & Ellis New York, US |
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Sachin Kerur Partner Reed Smith Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE |
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Ryo Kotoura Partner Anderson Mori & Tomotsune Tokyo, Japan |
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Karthik Kumar Partner Jones Day Singapore |
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Ashok Lalwani Principal Baker McKenzie Singapore |
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Laurence Lieberman Partner Taylor Wessing London, UK Tel: +44 207 300 4869 Email: l.lieberman@taylorwessing.com |
| Key practice areas: Life sciences disputes; white-collar crime investigations and defence; contentious banking and financial services; technology and telecommunications |
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Laurence Lieberman is a partner in the disputes & investigations team at Taylor Wessing in London. Laurence is the Head of Taylor Wessing’s India Group, acting for a range of Indian companies, from startups to multinationals, on international arbitration, commercial court litigation, white collar investigations and regulatory compliance. He has been doing business in India for over a decade. He most recently advised Ola Cabs on its UK launch, and advises several Indian pharmaceutical and technology companies. Laurence advises banks, funds, other financial institutions and high net worth individuals on disputes involving structured products, spread betting and CFDs, securitisations, trade finance, complex lending enforcement, derivatives and financial frauds. He advises on FCA investigations into banks, including acting for senior executives of banks on whistle blowing, FX and anti-trust matters. Laurence acts for pharmaceutical, life sciences and biotech companies, on supplier/distributor disputes, disputes concerning GMP compliance and other regulatory issues, licencing and royalty disputes, and disputes involving exploitation of medicines into new markets. |
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Bobby Majumder Partner, Head of India Group Reed Smith Dallas, US |
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Sunny Mann Partner Baker McKenzie London, UK |
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Nick Merritt Global Head of infrastructure, mining and commodities Norton Rose Fulbright Singapore |
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Soumitro Mukerji Counsel Hogan Lovells Singapore |
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Vikram Nair Head, India desk Rajah & Tann Singapore |
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Deepak Nambiar Partner Kelley Drye & Warren New York, US |
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Gautam Narasimhan Partner Allen & Overy Singapore |
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Nandan Nelivigi Partner White & Case New York, US |
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Sam Newhouse Partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer London, UK |
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Meraj Noor Deputy chair international – India group DLA Piper Singapore |
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Chris Parsons Chairman of the India practice Herbert Smith Freehills London, UK |
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Nimi Patel Director Squire Patton Boggs London, UK |
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Shashwat Patel Counsel and Head of India Group Simmons & Simmons London, UK |
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Jai Pathak Partner Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher Singapore |
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Dhruv Paul Managing Associate Watson Farley & Williams Dubai, UAE |
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Nicholas Peacock Partner Herbert Smith Freehills London, UK |
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Sherina Petit Partner and Head of India Practice Norton Rose Fulbright London, UK Tel: +44 20 7444 5573 Email: sherina.petit@nortonrosefulbright.com |
| Key practice areas: International arbitration; investor state dispute resolution; alternative dispute resolution; litigation |
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Sherina Petit is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in London and heads the international arbitration practice across Asia, Europe and Middle East. She also heads the firm’s India practice. Besides arbitration she has significant experience in investor state disputes resolution, alternative dispute resolutions (ADR), litigation and regulatory investigations. In addition to acting as counsel in arbitrations, she regularly sits as an arbitrator. Sherina has a wide range of experience in all key aspects of international arbitration across a broad range of industries including energy, construction, oil and gas, trade, transport, pharmaceuticals, commodities, finance and technology. Sherina is on the LCIA Board of Directors and on the board of the European Federation of Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA) (having been its chairman for the past three years). She is also part of the ICC Indian Arbitration Group, the SIAC Users Council, the SIAC Users Council’s Regional/National Committee for the UK and the Kuala Lumpur Court of Arbitration. Sherina is on the Steering Committee of the Pledge for Equal Representation for Women in Arbitration and launched the Pledge in India in 2018. Sherina has received multiple awards:
Sherina is ranked in several leading directories including:
Sherina qualified as an Advocate in India whilst working at a leading law firm in Mumbai (non-practising) and completed her Master of Laws at King’s College London. She obtained her England and Wales qualification while training at Linklaters in London and subsequently spent six years as an associate in the international arbitration team at Shearman & Sterling in London before joining Norton Rose Fulbright in 2009. |
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Prakash Pillai Partner Clyde & Co Singapore |
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Leena Pinsler Consultant, Corporate & Finance Drew & Napier Singapore |
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Manoj Pundit Partner Head of India Borden Ladner Gervais Toronto, Canada |
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Sunil Rai Partner Dentons Rodyk & Davidson Singapore |
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Yash Rana Chair, Hong Kong Goodwin Procter Hong Kong |
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Martin Rogers Partner Davis Polk & Wardwell Hong Kong |
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Dipen Sabharwal Partner White & Case London, UK |
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Kayal Sachi Partner Mayer Brown Singapore |
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Raj Sahni Partner Bennett Jones Toronto, Canada |
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Tihir Sarkar Partner Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton London, UK Tel: +44 20 7614 2205 Email: tsarkar@cgsh.com |
| Key practice areas: Sovereign wealth funds, mergers & acquisitions, private equity and restructuring transactions |
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Tihir is a recognised expert acting for sovereign wealth funds and major multi-nationals with respect to their foreign direct investment into India. Tihir has particular expertise within the natural resources and the technology, media and communications sectors. He has a long history of working for clients in India and the wider Asia-Pacific area, with clients, including American Express, Coca-Cola and Arcelor Mittal regularly turning to him for advice. Tihir’s expertise has been recognized by a number of leading publications and directories; Chambers UK and Legal 500 noted his corporate/M&A high-end capability, emerging markets and Asia-Pacific expertise, as well as India corporate/M&A and private equity work. He is an editor of Cleary Gottlieb’s widely read Emerging Markets Restructuring Journal. The Lawyer and Legal Business have previously identified him as one of their “Hot 100″ and as a “Star of the Future” respectively. |
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Ernst-Markus Schuberth Partner, Head of CMS India desk CMS Hasche Sigle Dusseldorf, Germany |
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Kamal Shah Partner Stephenson Harwood London, UK Tel: +44 20 7809 2301 Email: kamal.shah@shlegal.com |
| Key practice areas: International arbitration; fraud and asset recovery; cross-border litigation in a wide range of sectors |
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Kamal is the head of Stephenson Harwood’s Africa and India groups. He specialises in complex, cross-border international arbitration, litigation and fraud and asset recovery. He acts for governments, government entities, banks, private corporations and high net worth individuals in a range of matters including those relating to projects and infrastructure, joint ventures, banking and finance, shareholder arrangements, energy and a range of schemes commonly used to defraud individuals and corporations. Kamal is highly ranked in the legal directories including The Legal 500 UK, Chambers (UK, global and Asia-Pacific for dispute resolution (international firms) in India and IFLR1000 as well as being listed in the Lawyer’s Hot 100 list of leading lawyers in the UK for 2009 and 2014. He was named as a leading international arbitration practitioner in Who’s Who Legal: Future Leaders 2017 – 2020 and has been recognised in The Legal 500‘s Powerlist for arbitration for 2019. Stephenson Harwood continues to be listed as a ‘key player’ by India Business Law Journal with Kamal recognised as a top foreign lawyer for India related work in IBLJ’s A List. |
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Daniel Sharma Partner DLA Piper Frankfurt, Germany |
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Sunil Sheth Partner Fladgate London, UK Tel: +44 0 7930 524508 Email: ssheth@fladgate.com |
| Key practice areas: Private equity; international corporate and tax structuring; investment funds; mergers and acquisitions |
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Sunil Sheth is a senior corporate partner and co-head of Fladgate’s India team. Whilst his main focus is for clients in India, Sunil also deals with the Indian Diaspora around the world, including Singapore, Hong Kong, East Africa, the UAE and Britain. Sunil has established a market reputation as a trusted adviser to many Indian companies and high net worth individuals. He also advises international companies wishing to do business in India. For high net worth entrepreneurs, Sunil advises on international corporate and tax structures and estate planning matters as well as wealth management aspects. His clients are from a diverse range of sectors including financial services, manufacturing, infrastructure, hotels and hospitality. Sunil has recently been recognised by the English Law Society for his exceptional contribution to the legal profession. Outside of the law, Sunil is Chair of Sense International, a charity which assists children and young adults who suffer from deaf blindness. |
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Nish Shetty Partner Clifford Chance Singapore |
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Amit Singh Partner Linklaters Singapore |
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Parmjit Singh Head of India Group Eversheds Sutherland London, UK |
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Ragi Singh Head of India team Gowling WLG Birmingham and London, UK |
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Parveet Singh Gandoak Counsel Skadden Arps Singapore |
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Sarjit Singh Gill Senior Partner Shook Lin & Bok Singapore |
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Sivi Sivanesan Senior Partner Dentons Rodyk Davidson Singapore |
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Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan Partner Herbert Smith Freehills Singapore |
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Michael Sturrock Partner Latham & Watkins Singapore |
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Divya Thakur Senior Counsel Akin Gump Singapore |
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Ralph Voltmer Partner Covington & Burling Washington DC, US Tel: +1 202 662 5479 Email: rvoltmer@cov.com |
| Key practice areas: M&A; joint ventures; corporate & commercial; private equity & finance |
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Ralph Voltmer is chair of Covington’s India Practice and a partner in the firm’s corporate group. Ralph has been active in India for 20 years working with companies such as Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Piramal Enterprises, UPL, Mindtree, the Aditya Birla Group, the Tata Group, OmniActive Health Technologies, Sterlite Technologies, and Balkrishna Industries. He advises clients on cross-border and US domestic transactions, including mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and debt financings. Ralph is also actively involved in the entrepreneur community in Bengaluru where Covington hosts quarterly workshops for entrepreneurs, and he is a member of the board of directors of the US-India Business Council. Ralph recently represented Piramal Enterprises Limited in the $950 million sale of Decision Resources Group (DRG) to Clarivate Analytics. He is currently representing Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited in connection with a unique, comprehensive, long-term strategic relationship with Microsoft aimed at accelerating the digital transformation of the Indian economy and society through the development of data centers in India by Jio from which it will offer next-generation cloud-based solutions, including compute, storage and productivity, using Microsoft’s Azure platform. Ralph received his law degree from Georgetown University. He has a Master’s degree from the University of California, Riverside and obtained his undergraduate degree from Wheaton College. |
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Nilufer von Bismarck Head of the Financial Institutions Grou Slaughter and May London, UK |
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Pallavi Wahi Co-United States Managing Partner and Co-Head India Practice K&L Gates Seattle, US |
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Francis Xavier Regional Disputes head Rajah & Tann Singapore |
