Services
Dispute Resolution
As the global and domestic economy grows and becomes interconnected, it is leading to tighter regulatory oversight, higher accountability standards and intense competition. The interplay of these dynamics creates challenges that can test the resolve and slow down the progress of organisations, creating higher costs and liabilities, requiring that disputes are best avoided and addressed effectively and efficiently, should they arise.
We are uniquely positioned to provide counsel on these issues and represent our clients in cross-border litigation, international arbitration and investigations. Litigation is the crucible on which all transactions are finally put to test and we at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co recognise this, delivering a comprehensive range of services that are anchored on the proven expertise of our robust and highly reputed corporate commercial Dispute Resolution practice, with over 130 dispute lawyers that includes 39 partners. The team is led by senior litigators who are acknowledged leaders in their field, many of whom have over twenty years’ of experience at the bar.
We have deep experience in representing domestic clients before the Supreme Court of India, various High Courts and Tribunals in India. Our lawyers have acted in numerous landmark cases involving complex legal nuances of law that have contributed to the development of jurisprudence in India.
We also have significant experience in representing clients in both domestic and international arbitrations, having seat in India and abroad, including London, Paris, Dubai, Chicago, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, The Hague, and Stockholm. Our expertise spans across diverse sectors and industries, including Financial Services, Banking, Telecom, Construction, Energy, Heavy Industries, Oil & Gas, Infrastructure, Pharmaceuticals, F&B, Media and Information Technology, amongst others. Our range of clients include domestic, public sector, international, private equity and banking clients, among others.
Areas of Focus
With insights into the legal and regulatory environment, culture, and way of doing business wherever our clients operate, we deliver outcomes that alleviate disruption for our clients. Our full spectrum of services include dispute avoidance, strategic advice, pre-litigation/litigation service and enforcement.
Our Approach
Litigation is all about “strategy”. It is about cutting edge planning, translating into practical solutions that synchronise with the objectives of the client at every stage of litigation and dispute resolution.
Working in seamless collaboration and harnessing the full potential of our other practices across the Firm is an advantage we bring to bear for our clients and that sets us apart. We work closely with other practice areas including General Corporate, Competition Law, Tax and Intellectual Property to develop compliance programmes and perform risk assessments to reduce clients’ overall litigation exposure.
Arbitration
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM & Co.) is recognised as one of the leading law firms in India for international and domestic arbitration. We have a specialised Arbitration Practice Group consisting of members with extensive experience and expertise in handling all phases of complex commercial and treaty arbitrations, including advising on negotiation strategy, developing dispute resolution plans, drafting pleadings, conducting arbitration hearings and, where necessary, seeking resource from courts, including in respect of appointment of arbitrators, grant of interim relief, challenge and enforcement of arbitration awards.
We have successfully handled various arbitrations involving virtually every major industry, including oil & gas, private equity, real estate, infrastructure and shipping. Our client base includes international giants like GE, JP Morgan, Standard & Poor, Brookfield, Abertis Infrastructures, Danone, CVRD (Vale), Vodafone and Suzuki Motor Corporation and large Indian corporates like ONGC Videsh Ltd., NTPC, GSFC, BHEL and Videocon.
Read More+
International Commercial Arbitration
We have significant experience in conducting international commercial arbitrations under all the key institutional rules, including International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) and Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA). In addition, we regularly act in ad-hoc arbitrations, including arbitrations carried out pursuant to Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. The international commercial arbitrations conducted by members of the Arbitration Practice Group have been seated all over the world, including London, Paris, Singapore, and India. We also regularly act as co-counsel with international law firms in conducting international commercial arbitrations. The members of the Arbitration Practice Group are on the committee of virtually all major arbitration institutions, including SIAC, LCIA, HKIAC, ICC and MCIA.
Domestic Arbitration
We regularly represent clients across industries and sectors in Institutional and ad hoc domestic arbitrations. We have an extensive experience in institutional arbitrations conducted under the arbitration rules of almost every reputable domestic institution such as the Delhi International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) and Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA), and the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR) besides others. Also, we regularly represent several Indian corporates including Indian subsidiaries of foreign entities in ad hoc domestic arbitrations.
We represent clients in arbitrations in a wide range of disputes including shareholder disputes, interpretation of production sharing contracts, disputes regarding unitisation under production sharing contracts, franchise agreements, sale purchase and marketing agreements, joint venture agreements, distributorship agreements, hotel management agreements, disputes regarding foreign investment in real estate, disputes under construction and development contracts, financial services agreements
including loans etc.
Investment Treaty Arbitration
We regularly act for both Indian as well as foreign investors in their investment treaty arbitrations. Currently, we are handling multiple investment treaty arbitrations for Indian and foreign investors against various countries, including countries in the Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Members of the Arbitration Practice Group have acted in multiple investorstate arbitrations conducted under various arbitration rules, including those of International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), and UNCITRAL. We also regularly advise on structuring investments to benefit from treaty protections.
Litigation Related to Arbitration
As one of the leading litigation firms in India, we have extensive experience in representing multinational and Indian companies before Indian courts and tribunals. We regularly represent clients in Indian court proceedings relating to arbitration including appointment of arbitrators and challenging the appointment of arbitrators, seeking and securing interim relief and defending the opposite side’s request for interim relief. We also represent clients in court proceedings relating to the challenge to the Arbitration Awards passed in India and enforcement/execution of Arbitration Awards including Foreign Awards.
We have successfully represented clients in several High Courts in India and the Supreme Court of India in landmark cases on the applicability of Part – I of the Arbitration Act to arbitrations having seat outside India and on emerging issues arising out of the recent amendments to the Arbitration Act and the introduction of the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division Act, 2015. The issues we are involved in include failure to provide appropriate disclosure by nominated arbitrators, proceedings pending for interim relief before courts once the arbitral tribunal has been established, retrospective applicability of the amendments to arbitrations and arbitration related court proceedings and the determination of the appropriate forum for their adjudication with the establishment of commercial courts.
Read Less-
White Collar Crime, Internal Investigations and Compliance Profile
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas is one of the very few Tier I Law Firms in India that has a comprehensive White Collar Crime, Internal Investigations and Compliance practice.
The opening of the Indian economy, the evolution of the Indian business and regulatory regime with a strong emphasis on transparency and disclosure coupled with strict enforcement of anti-corruption laws across the world has led to an exponential increase in investigations and prosecutions related to white collar crimes and economic offences. With both civil society and the courts shunning corrupt practices, India has seen an exponential surge in scams and investigations in the last decade. The growth in complexity and scale of white collar crimes in India and the amendments to Indian anti-corruption laws has made it critical for companies doing business in India to establish adequate procedures to ensure their businesses are compliant with increasingly stringent Indian and international regulations. The long arm of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the UK Bribery Act (UKBA), and the vigorous enforcement of the Indian anti-corruption laws by courts in India have made both domestic companies doing business in the US, UK and India, and the Indian subsidiaries of US and UK companies extremely conscious of strict compliance requirements under those laws.
Read More+
Services We Offer
Our White Collar Crime, Internal Investigations and Compliance practice offers the full range of services like advising in relation to Indian laws relating to fraud, anti-money laundering, anti-corruption and anti-bribery, employee misconduct, procurement malpractices and other business crimes, discovering the existence of an offence, determining the strategy to be followed, and finally pursuing it to its logical end before a court in India and representing clients in various regulatory investigations and prosecutions. The practice, inter alia, also includes:
- Assisting in internal investigations in to potential violations of US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) ,UK Bribery Act (UKBA) and Indian statutes such as Prevention of Corruption Act (POCA), including on aspects related to structuring of the internal investigations, collection of data, preservation of privilege, conducting interviews, reporting of findings, suggesting and implementing mitigation and remediation measures.
- Assisting clients during investigations by the various Governmental agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), Enforcement Directorate and the Economic Offences Wing of the police. Our advice to our clients includes, discovering facts, building a defence through the investigation process and defending them in a trial.
- Conducting and/or supervising internal investigations relating to money laundering and other financial crimes.
- Advising directors and audit companies of large companies in relation to issues related to corporate governance and related best practices, including on aspects related to directors’ duties, avoidance of conflict of interest transaction, related party transactions, reporting obligations, auditor’s powers, setting up of compliance programs and policies and other statutory compliances.
- Helping companies in undertaking pro-active compliance audits/assessment of existing compliance programs for timely identification of compliance risks and for remediation of such risks.
- Leading diligences for assessing compliances with legal requirements under anti-corruption and anti-fraud laws, as part of acquisition proposals or as part of post-acquisition compliance diligence/ integration.
- Conducting diligences on third parties/ agents/ intermediaries as part of the larger pro-active compliance programs.
- Helping companies in overhauling and customizing their compliance policies and procedures, keeping in mind the sector specific requirements and associated risks.
- Conducting compliance training sessions for educating officers and employees on compliance requirements and reinforcing the importance of having a strong compliance culture.
- We also supervise and work with forensic investigative agencies and other external advisors to provide holistic services to our client.
- In multi-jurisdictional investigations, we also work with foreign law firms to provide amalgamated solutions to our clients.
Our practice also includes, inter alia, the following with respect to specific focus on dispute services:
- Discovering the existence of an offence: We work closely with foreign law firms and forensic teams/internal investigation teams to identify relevant documents including exculpatory documents, identify witnesses relevant to the allegations, interview witnesses and prepare reports.
- Determining the strategy: We work with our clients to develop offensive and/or defensive strategies to defend them before the authorities and the courts.
- Defending the clients: We finally pursue a matter to its logical end, by representing our clients before various courts of India.
- We work in close sync with our General Corporate, Litigation and Securities Law teams, to provide a suite of integrated services and a wealth of knowledge and experience to our clients.
Read Less-
