Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co - The Who's Who Legal 100 2012

What is the Who's Who Legal 100?

Noteworthy transactions include advising the Aircel Group on the $1.84 billion sale of its telecom towers business to GTL Infrastructure. Other major clients include JSW Steel; the firm advised the company in the strategic investment by JFE Corporation of approximately $1 billion. In one of the largest IPOs in India, where Coal India raised $3.3 billion, the firm acted as the domestic legal counsel to the underwriters Citi, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Enam, Kotak and Morgan Stanley. In competition work, the firm represented HDFC in the Competition Commission of India’s first ever substantive decision in a case relating to the alleged anti-competitive nature of the pre-payment penalties imposed by banks and housing financial companies on early repayment of housing loans.

Brothers and managing partners Cyril Shroff and Shardul Shroff are undoubtedly the biggest names at the firm and “very highly respected” by peers in the jurisdiction. Cyril Shroff has an exceptionally broad skillset and is listed in eight chapters of this edition, namely banking, capital markets, corporate governance, M&A, mining, oil and gas, project finance and public procurement. Currently managing the Mumbai office, he is the “go-to” lawyer for big businesses in India. Respondents to our survey admire his “outstanding legal and commercial knowledge” and comment that he is “a pleasure to work with”.

Shardul Shroff leads the team in New Delhi and is listed in six chapters of this edition: banking, corporate governance, M&A, oil and gas, project finance and public procurement. He is a “superb” lawyer and “highly sought after” by clients who are impressed with his “perfectionist’s approach”.

Pallavi Shroff, also of the New Delhi office, features in the arbitration, commercial litigation and competition chapters. She leads the firm’s competition group and is a “standout” name in this sector. Peers describe her as a “very persuasive litigator who really knows what she’s doing”.

L Viswanathan is listed for his expertise in project finance and public procurement. Head of the firm’s project finance practice, he has advised the lenders in India’s first private cross-country pipeline and India’s largest privatised road project.

Harman Singh Sandhu and Naval Satarawala are both recommended for their “stellar” competition practices. Based in the Mumbai office, Ashwath Rau is recognised for his private funds specialist knowledge and he recently acted as fund counsel for SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund, the Oman India Joint Investment Fund and Kaizen Private Equity. Fellow partner Yash Ashar is highly rated for his capital markets expertise and advised Standard Chartered in the first ever issuance of Indian depository receipts on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. He also acted for Essar Energy in relation to its listing on the London Stock Exchange. Reeba Chacko practises from the Bangalore office and receives high praise for her M&A work, which one source described as “highly polished and very impressive”. Ciccu Mukhopadhaya is “sharp-minded” and has a “leading” arbitration practice. Peers praise his “sound judgement and excellent understanding of legal issues”.

With such exceptional talent across the spectrum of commercial legal practice, it is little wonder that Amarchand has a gold-standard reputation – not only in India, but internationally too.

Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co - Professional Notice

Founded in 1917, Amarchand Mangaldas is one of India’s leading full-service law firms. With over 550 lawyers, including 68 partners, offering comprehensive legal advisory services through its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad, the firm employs its legal resources across all major practice areas and focuses on several core areas of commercial activity. Often viewed as “the firm of preference” when it comes to foreign direct investment in India, the firm helps its clients achieve their goals by combining global standards with local expertise.

The firm is known for its expertise in mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures; private equity; investment funds; capital markets; insolvency and corporate restructuring; banking and finance (including structured finance and debt capital markets); insurance; projects (including infrastructure, telecommunications and energy); project finance; real estate; information technology and intellectual property; taxation; litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution; trade and competition law; employment law and policy; and regulatory advice.

The firm has been and continues to be part of major headline transactions and litigations in all segments of industry and services, besides representing almost every major transnational corporation on their India entry and business strategy.

Quite often, Amarchand Mangaldas has been in the unique position of acting as adviser on public policy formation in India. Distinguished partners of the firm have been members of many legislative panels to assist the government of India with a legal perspective on policy related matters.

In addition, members of the firm regularly participate in several legal reforms, committees and policy initiatives of the government of India. The firm’s clientele includes several leading Indian and international business houses, transnational corporations and financial institutions.

Amarchand Mangaldas is also the exclusive Indian member firm of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading association of independent law firms. Such pre-eminent counselling by Amarchand Mangaldas has earned the firm the enviable reputation of being a leader amongst its peers. Some of corporate India’s most influential entrepreneurs turn to Amarchand Mangaldas for innovative legal solutions and strategies. The firm has consistently received accolades for its excellence through winning prestigious awards and being named in rankings. Recently, managing partner Shardul Shroff was honoured with an Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Law Award, given by Chambers & Partners at the Chambers Asia-Pacific Awards 2012. The firm also won a 2012 International Law Office (ILO) Client Choice Award: for the second year in a row, the firm was judged the “exclusive winner” of the ILO overall award for India. The International Financial Law Review (IFLR) has, for the third consecutive year, named Amarchand Mangaldas the National Law Firm of the Year, 2011–2012.

The firm is at the cutting edge of new issues in law and areas of economic activity, guiding the creation of legal precedents and expanding its services and skills to meet the challenges of change.

Amarchand Mangaldas is structured into different teams, with each group specialising in a specific practice domain. However, when a situation calls for a special effort, each member of the firm is qualified and competent enough to counsel a client on several aspects of law.

Each member of the team is encouraged to participate in external conferences to develop a multi-disciplinary problem-solving approach to clients’ needs. Consequently, the firm’s lawyers have a thorough understanding of business, economic and legislative issues.

The ability to draw upon the subject-matter expertise of the the firm’s practitioners enables it to offer legal strategies that result in effective solutions for clients. The firm is proud of its counselling and negotiation experience, and remains committed to excellence in every aspect of client representation. This approach builds a sustained high-performance resource pool — resulting in a definitive advantage for Amarchand Mangaldas.

Office

Amarchand & Mangaldas &

Suresh A. Shroff & Co.

Amarchand Towers

216, Okhla Industrial Estate, Phase III

New Delhi

India

Tel: +91 11 26920500

Fax: +91 11 26924900

shardul.shroff@amarchand.com

Contact

Mr Shardul S. Shroff

Managing Partner