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, India Group Allen & Overy Singapore |
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Pallavi Gopinath Aney Partner Allen & Overy Singapore |
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Talat M Ansari Partner, Chairman of India Practice Kelley Drye New York, US |
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Robert Appelbaum Partner, Head of India practice Webber Wentzel Johannesburg, South Africa |
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Ulrich Baeumer Co-head of India practice Osborne Clarke Cologne, Germany |
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Arun Balasubramanian Partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Singapore and Hong Kong, China |
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Clive Barnard Partner, Member of India Group Herbert Smith Freehills London, UK |
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Jamie Benson Partner Duane Morris & Selvam Singapore Tel: +65 6311 0030 Email: jbenson@duanemorrisselvam.com |
| Key practice areas: Capital markets |
| Jamie Benson is the head of Duane Morris & Selvam’s US securities law practice and India practice desk. He is one of the leading international legal counsel advising on securities offerings by Indian issuers, having worked on more than 60 deals by Indian issuers since 2004, including numerous deals that were awarded “deal of the year” by India Business Law Journal. Jamie is cited in IFLR 1000 2019 as a Highly Regarded Lawyer for Capital Markets: Debt and Capital Markets: Equity, M&A and listed by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2019 as a recommended lawyer for Capital Markets (Foreign Firms) in Singapore and in India Foreign Firms category. He has more than 20 years’ experience practising as a lawyer and is currently based in Singapore, having previously worked in New York, Sydney and London. Jamie studied law at the University of Cambridge and received an LLM from the University of Virginia. |
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Manoj Bhargava Partner Sidley Austin Singapore |
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Sidharth Bhasin Partner Shearman & Sterling Singapore and Hong Kong, China |
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Gautam Bhattacharyya Partner Reed Smith London, UK |
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Raja Bose Partner K&L Gates Straits Law LLC Singapore |
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Richard Breen Partner William Fry Dublin, Ireland |
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Geoffrey Burgess Partner Debevoise & Plimpton London, UK |
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David Cameron Partner, Co-Chair India Practice Group Dorsey & Whitney Hong Kong, China |
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Karun Cariappa Partner, India practice Morgan Lewis & Stamford SingaporeTel: +65 6389 3006 Email: karun.cariappa@morganlewis.com |
| Key practice areas: Capital markets, securities law, M&A, private equity |
| Karun Cariappa is recognized as a leading international capital markets practitioner. He advises on securities offerings across Asia with a particular focus on India. Karun advises corporate issuers, selling shareholders, and underwriters on initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, offers for sale, private placements, block trades, bond offerings, and bond restructurings.
Karun has advised on various landmark transactions including the first private placement of units by IndInfravit Trust, an infrastructure investment trust sponsored by L&T Infrastructure Projects Development Ltd; the first qualified institutional placement of equity shares out of India by Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited; and the first institutional placement programme out of India by Godrej Properties Limited. Karun is the co-leader of Morgan Lewis’ India practice. Morgan Lewis is a global law firm with offices in North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. |
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David Carpenter Partner, Co-Head of India Practice Mayer Brown New York, US |
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Bill Carr Partner, Head of India Practice 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 |
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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 (2018) and Prime Database (2016 – 2018) league tables; and was recognized as India Desk of the Year (2017) 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 SBI QIP, US$3.4 billion Coal India IPO, US$1.2 billion PFC FPO, US$1.3 billion SBI Life Insurance IPO, 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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Rohit Chaudhry Partner Kirkland & Ellis Washington DC, US |
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George Cyriac Partner Stephenson Harwood Singapore |
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Paul de Bernier Partner, Co-Head India Practice Mayer Brown Los Angeles and Palo Alto, US |
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Valérie Demont Partner Sheppard Mullin New York, US |
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Sanjeev Dhuna Partner, Chair of India Practice Allen & Overy London, UK |
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Arvind Dixit Partner, Co-Head India Desk Corrs Chambers Westgarth Melbourne, Australia |
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Rustam Dubash Partner, Head of India Group Penningtons Manches London, UK |
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Rajeev Duggal Partner Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom Singapore |
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Mike Duggan Partner – Head of Corporate London & Head of India Business Group Addleshaw Goddard London, UK Tel: +44 207 880 5804 Email: mike.duggan@addleshawgoddard.com |
| Key practice areas: Corporate (includes public and private M&A, ECM and private equity); international disputes (litigation and arbitration); international real estate; and finance (includes banking, aviation and asset finance) |
| Mike Duggan is a senior corporate partner at Addleshaw Goddard with nearly 25 years’ expertise from undertaking a broad range of UK and cross-border transactional work. Mike heads up Addleshaw Goddard’s India Business Group and has deep experience from working with the Indian business community for the last 15 years.
Mike and his India team provide practical advice on all legal issues relevant to Indian companies and promoters; from establishing overseas operations, acquiring businesses or establishing joint ventures, raising international finance (listings, private equity or bank finance), mitigating risk in business practices, to successfully resolving complex and high value disputes. Supported by teams in London, Singapore and Dubai, Mike has advised leading Indian companies such as JSW Group, Tata Chemicals, Apollo Tyres, Cipla, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India, as well as numerous international businesses looking to the Indian market to support their growth strategies. |
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Clifford Felig Partner Meitar Tel Aviv, Israel |
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Parveet Gandoak Counsel Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom Singapore |
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Sarjit Singh Gill Senior Partner Shook Lin & Bok Singapore |
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Peter Goldsmith Partner, Chair of Asian and European Litigation, Debevoise & Plimpton London, UK |
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James Grandolfo Partner Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy Hong Kong, China |
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Richard Gubbins Partner Ashurst London, UK |
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Nipun Gupta Consultant 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, Co-head India Practice Blakes Montréal, Canada |
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Savi Hebbur Partner, Head India Corporate Offering Linklaters London, UK |
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Ranbir Hunjan Partner Clifford Chance London, UK |
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Martin Imhof Partner Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek Dusseldorf, Germany Tel: +49 211 600 55-246 Email: m.imhof@heuking.de |
| Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A, private equity/venture capital, commercial, cross-border transactions |
| Martin Imhof is a partner and head of India desk at the German law firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek. He regularly represents strategic and financial investors in domestic and cross-border M&A transactions and investments, and in the structuring of international joint ventures. He advises Indian enterprises investing in Germany and coordinates outbound work for German clients.
Additionally, Martin advises in general corporate and commercial matters, including international supply. Martin is recommended in M&A by the German business journal WirtschaftsWoche (2016). The Legal 500 Germany 2019 named him for Trade and Distribution. Chambers Global 2016 recognised his India-related M&A expertise. India Business Law Journal (2018) quotes clients saying “‘Martin Imhof successfully matched our interests with the needs of Indian, German and international company law.’ ‘We largely benefited from his pronounced intercultural competence’;” and others confirming he “offers ‘great technical expertise and provides extremely reliable and practical advice’ and has ‘a deep understanding of India as a jurisdiction’.” |
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Naomi Ishikawa Partner Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy Singapore |
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Narayan Iyer Parter, Head of India Practice Linklaters London, UK |
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Sushil Jacob Partner, Linklaters London, UK |
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Abhimanyu Jalan Partner Clyde & Co Dubai, UAE |
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Philip Jeyaretnam Global Vice-Chair and ASEAN CEO Dentons Rodyk & Davidson Singapore |
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Sushma Jobanputra Partner Jones Day Singapore |
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Sunil Kakkad Partner, Head of India Group and Corporate Gowling WLG London, UK |
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Rahul Kapoor Partner, Leader of India Iniative Morgan Lewis & Bockius 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 |
| 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 co-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 Partner Norton Rose Fulbright London, UK |
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Ankit Kashyap Partner Sidley Austin Singapore |
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Amit Kataria Partner Morrison & Foerster Hong Kong, China Tel: +852 2585 0888 Email: akataria@mofo.com |
| Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A, private equity |
| Amit Kataria is a partner of Morrison & Foerster. New York-trained, he has extensive experience advising on M&A transactions, PE investments, securities offerings and on a broad range of transactional and corporate advisory matters. He represents corporates, financial sponsors and their portfolio companies in US domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions across a wide range of industries, including financial services, technology, biotech, hospitality, insurance, logistics, manufacturing, real estate and pharmaceuticals.
Amit focuses on advising regional and international strategic acquirers and financial investors in connection with global cross-border transactions involving the US, China, South Korea, India, rest of South Asia and Southeast Asia. He has also regularly advised clients on various litigation, internal investigation, and enforcement matters related to India. Amit has been named as a Dealmaker of the Year by multiple publications. He has also been recognized by Chambers Asia-Pacific as a leading lawyer for India corporate and M&A work. |
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Srinivas Kaushik Partner, Senior on India Group Kirkland & Ellis New York, US |
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Sachin Kerur Partner, Head of Middle East Offices Reed Smith Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE |
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Ryo Kotoura Partner Anderson Mōri & Tomotsune Tokyo, Japan |
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Karthik Kumar Partner Jones Day Singapore Tel: +65 6233 5980 Email: kkumar@jonesday.com |
| Key practice areas: Projects and infrastructure, renewable energy, banking & finance, M&A |
| Karthik Kumar has acted on major infrastructure projects, M&A and financing transactions in the Asia Pacific region since 2003. Karthik acts for a wide variety of clients including developers, sponsors, borrowers, and financial institutions on a range of infrastructure related projects and financing transactions with a focus on the renewable energy sector.
He is highly regarded for his in-depth regulatory knowledge and significant transactional experience in South East Asia particularly in India. He recently advised UPL Limited in connection with its US$4.2 billion acquisition of Arysta Lifescience Inc. Karthik is recognized as a notable lawyer in leading directories including Chambers Global (2019), Chambers Asia-Pacific (2019), IFLR 1000 (2019) and The Legal 500 (2019) in the areas of energy, projects and infrastructure and banking and finance. Quoting Kumar’s client, Chambers Asia-Pacific (2019) described him as a lawyer “with solid business acumen when married with this legal advice provides effective solutions for us to address complex problems.” |
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Ashok Lalwani Principal Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow Singapore |
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Laurence Lieberman Partner, UK Head of India Group 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 |
| 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 Dallas Office Managing Partner Reed Smith Dallas, US |
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Alexander McMyn Partner Hogan Lovells Singapore |
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Alan Montgomery Partner, Member of India Group Herbert Smith Freehills London, UK |
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Vikram Nair Partner, Head of India Rajah & Tann Singapore |
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Deepak Nambiar Partner Kelley Drye New York, US |
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Gautam Narasimhan Partner, India Group Allen & Overy Singapore |
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Nandan Nelivigi Partner & India Chair White & Case New York, US |
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Samuel Newhouse Partner Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer London, UK |
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Meraj Noor Senior Associate DLA Piper Singapore |
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Chris Parsons Partner, Chair of India Practice Herbert Smith Freehills London, UK |
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Nimi Patel Director of India Practice Squire Patton Boggs London, UK |
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Rahul Patel Partner King & Spalding Atlanta, US |
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Jai Pathak Partner Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Singapore |
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Dhruv Paul Senior Associate Watson Farley & Williams Dubai, UAE |
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Nicholas Peacock Partner and Head of India Arbitration 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 |
| 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 the chairperson of the European Federation of Investment Law and Arbitration (EFILA) and is on the LCIA Board of Directors. She is also part of the ICC Indian Arbitration Group, the SIAC Users Council, the SIAC Users Council’s Regional/National Committee for the United Kingdom and the Kuala Lumpur Court of Arbitration. Sherina is also on the Steering Committee of the Pledge for Equal Representation for Women in Arbitration. 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 the London office before joining Norton Rose Fulbright. |
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Prakash Pillai Partner Clyde & Co Singapore |
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Leena Pinsler Consultant Drew & Napier Singapore |
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Manoj Pundit Partner, Head of India Borden Ladner Gervais Toronto, Canada |
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Yash Rana Partner, Chair of Asia Practice Goodwin Procter Hong Kong, China |
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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, Chair India Committee Bennett Jones Toronto, Canada |
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Tihir Sarkar Partner, M&A Cleary Gottlieb London, UK Tel: +44 20 7614 2205 Email: tsarkar@cgsh.com |
| Key practice areas: Mergers & acquisitions, private equity, restructuring transactions and sovereign wealth funds |
| Tihir Sarkar is a recognized expert acting for 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. Tihir 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 their “Hot 100″ and as a “Star of the Future” respectively. |
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Ernst-Markus Schuberth Partner, Head of Corporate, M&A Group CMS Dusseldorf, Germany |
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Kamal Shah Partner, Head of India and Africa Practices Stephenson Harwood London, UK |
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Daniel Sharma Partner, Co-Head of India Practice DLA Piper, Frankfurt, Germany |
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Sunil Sheth Partner Fladgate London, UK |
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Nish Shetty Partner Clifford Chance Singapore |
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Aditya Shroff Counsel Linklaters Dubai, UAE |
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Amit Singh Partner Linklaters Singapore |
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Parmjit Singh Partner, Chairman of India Practice Eversheds Sutherland London, UK |
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Ragi Singh Director, Head of India Team and Automotive Manufacturing Team Gowling WLG London, UK |
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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 London, UK |
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Ralph Voltmer Partner, Head of India Practice 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 |
| 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 almost 20 years working with companies such as Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Balkrishna Industries, Piramal Enterprises, UPL, Mindtree, the Aditya Birla Group, the Tata Group, and OmniActive Health Technologies. He advises clients on cross-border and U.S. domestic transactions. He has advised clients on mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and debt financings. Ralph is also actively involved in the entrepreneur community in Bengaluru and hosts quarterly workshops for entrepreneurs.
Some of Ralph’s representative India-related matters include:
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 Partner 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 Head, Dispute Resolution Rajah & Tann Singapore Tel: + 65 6232 0551 Email: francis.xavier@rajahtann.com |
| Key practice areas: International arbitration, treaty arbitration, commercial litigation, banking & finance disputes |
| Francis was appointed senior counsel in January 2009 and practices international commercial and treaty arbitration and litigation.
Francis is recognised as a leading lawyer by AsiaLaw Profiles (2017, 2018); Asia Pacific Legal 500 (2014-2018); Ranked Lawyers Chambers Global (2016-2018, 2019); Dispute Resolution Chambers Asia-Pacific (2016-2018); Labour & Employment; Who’s Who Legal (2016, 2018, 2019); Best Lawyer in Litigation Practice, Best Lawyers International (2015-2017); Asia Law Leading Lawyers (2009); Global Arbitration Review (2010); Best Litigation Lawyers in Singapore (2013) and as a leading employment lawyer – Chambers Asia Pacific (2014). Francis was recently recognized by Asia Business Law Journal in 2018 as Singapore’s top 100 lawyers and is the winner of a Business Excellence Awards (2019) issued by Corporate Insider, the Gateway to the World of Business and named Disputes resolution star by Benchmark Litigation Asia Pacific (2019). He is a chartered arbitrator and the immediate past chairman of the Singapore branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK). He is also president-elect of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association and the vice president, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK). He is the general editor of two major publications – Civil Litigation in Singapore (Sweet & Maxwell, 2017) and Arbitration in Singapore: A Practical Guide (2nd Edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2018). He is a member of the Rules Committee, Singapore Academy of Law. |
