Speakers

Pravin Anand

Managing Partner, Anand and Anand

Pravin Anand, Managing Partner of Anand and Anand, completed his law studies in New Delhi in 1979 and has practiced as an IP lawyer since then.

He has been a counsel in several landmark IP cases, including those involving the first Anton Piller order (HMV); First Mareva injunction order (Philips); India's first SEP litigation in a DVD player technology mat-ter (Philips), Pre suit mediation Litigation involving Nokia, First Norwich Pharmacal order (Hollywood Cigarettes) Moral rights of artists (Amarnath Sehgal) First order under the Hague Convention (Astra Zeneca) and several significant cases for pharmaceutical clients such as Monsanto, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer and Roche; apart from many others. He has received the National Innovation Foundation Award from the Indian government in recognition of pro bono work for rural innovators at the grassroots.

His innovative and creative approach towards IP is reflected across the pioneering initiatives the firm has taken to develop unique IP Concepts and products including an 'IP Board Game', India's First IP themed Play 'Brainchild', IP Comic- Adventures of Mr. IP, Compilation of legendary IP Matters in the form of a coffee table book “IPONOMICS” and others.

Pravin Anand is coauthor of Halsbury's Laws of India on Intellectual Property and is the author of many prestigious India chapters pertaining to Patents, Copyright, Media, Telecommunications, Trade Secrets and other practice areas.

He is a regular speaker at various prestigious forums, including the World Intellectual Property Organi-sation (WIPO), World Intellectual Property Forum, MIP- International Patent Forum, Global IP Conven-tion(GIPC), International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), International Trademark Association, Licensing Executives Society, International Bar Association; to name a few.

Mathew Chacko

Partner, Spice Route Legal

Mathew is the founder of Spice Route Legal and one of India’s leading TMT lawyers. Mathew blends the ability to advice on multi-jurisdictional corporate and commercial deals with regional regulatory expertise and an in-depth knowledge of global technology, media and telecommunications developments. In addition to M&A and Private Equity deals, he has advised some of the world’s largest technology companies in respect of a plethora of technology / regulatory issues, including data protection, privacy and data security, financial sector regulations, blockchain, drones, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, data, e-commerce and life sciences and healthcare.

Mathew regularly speaks in Europe, the Americas and in Asia on various aspects of doing business in India.

Akshay Chudasama

Managing Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas

Mr. Akshay Chudasama has advised on various marquee transactions including one of the largest PE acquisitions of a strategic stake in PRL Developers Private Limited by Warburg Pincus; Blackstone’s acquisition of a stake in the commercial/ office space real estate portfolio of the K Raheja Corp Group, India; an American insurance company in their acquisition of an additional 23% equity stake in their joint venture from their Indian partner; Sumitomo Chemical Company in their purchase of a 44.98% stake in Excel Crop Care Limited from the promoters and certain public shareholders, the acquisition of 9 project companies of the Gammon group by BIF India Holdings Pte. Ltd, amongst many more.

Akshay has been consistently recognized in the “A” list of India’s top 100 lawyers by India Business Law Journal, 2017, 2018 & 2019. He has also been recognized as a “Distinguished Practitioner” in the Asialaw Profiles, 2020, a “market-leading lawyer” in Real Estate, IT, Telco and Media lawyer in Asialaw Profiles, 2019 and as an Outstanding Lawyer by Asialaw Profiles 2017. Akshay has also been recognized as one of the 75 “Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – India 2019 in India. He has been rated as a “Leading Lawyer” by IFLR 1000 in 2017 and as “Highly Regarded” leading lawyer in 2018, 2019 and 2020 for Investment funds, Private equity, M&A, Real estate acquisitions.

Akshay has been practicing law since 1994. Akshay was a Partner at AZB & Partners for over 3 years and thereafter at J. Sagar Associates (JSA) for almost 10 years.

Himanshu Dodeja

Managing Director and Head of Legal,

Blackstone India

Himanshu Dodeja is a Managing Director, and Head of Legal, of Blackstone India, based in Mumbai. Mr. Dodeja focuses on mergers & acquisitions, private equity, capital market initiatives of the firm, and on all the legal matters. Mr. Dodeja is also on the board of various companies in India. Before joining Blackstone in 2016, Mr. Dodeja was a partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai, where he focused on private equity, M&A transactions, special situations, and advised many other marquee private equity investors. Mr. Dodeja is licensed to practice in India and in New York. He also holds an LL.M. from NYU School of Law.

Sandeep Kapoor

Founder and Managing Partner,

Algo Legal

Sandeep Kapoor is the Founder and Managing Partner of Algo Legal and comes with over 20 years of experience in the Venture Capital space.

Sandeep’s vision for Algo Legal stemmed from his deep passion to find simple solutions for complicated legal issues through the adoption of technology and the efficiencies it brings to the legal profession. He has advised in creation of numerous tools that have reduced complexity and accelerated the on-boarding, negotiation, compliance and approval of legal transactions. As an early adopter of technology, he transformed the in-house legal practice of Sequoia in India.

Prior to Algo Legal, Sandeep spent 9 years at Sequoia Capital, where he was Sequoia’s first legal hire globally. He left Sequoia in 2019 as Director – Legal. His experience spans over 1,500 investment rounds, including fresh investments, follow on rounds and exits across multiple jurisdictions. Before Sequoia, Sandeep worked with Intel where he was the General Counsel South Asia for Intel Technology and Senior Attorney South Asia for Intel Capital.

His mission is for Algo Legal to leverage technology and drive innovation to provide a client-centric experience and distinct value-add.

With the pace technology is disrupting industries around India and the world, Sandeep leads a team that is highly proficient in advising innovators and investors across the private equity, venture capital, technology, and other internet-related business sectors.

Rajiv Maheshwari

CEO, Anand and Anand

Rajiv has over 20 years of leadership and management experience across industries, including 8 years as CEO of India’s top intellectual property firm, Anand and Anand. He has earlier worked with leading companies such as Accenture and WNS, both listed on NYSE.

He has rich consulting and leadership experience in helping transform and drive change in organizations across Asia, Europe, Americas and Australia. His expertise straddles across People, Process, Technology and Strategy, as he balances left and right brained approaches to achieve transformational outcomes.

He is currently the CEO of Anand and Anand since 2011; a firm that helps develop, protect and leverage intellectual property (IPR) and thrives on innovation and creativity. Rajiv supplements the firm’s leadership position in IPR with his management experience and functional expertise in Finance, Marketing & Business Development, HR, Technology, Operations, Analytics and Strategy. Several projects that he has led have been recognized for innovation by Financial Times.

He was earlier heading Global Transformation Solutions at WNS (NYSE listed with market cap over $3bn), designing and implementing solutions for several Fortune 500 clients and helping build new revenue streams. Prior to this, Rajiv worked with Accenture Strategy Consulting across strategy, process and technology before building and managing Accenture's domestic BPO business.

Rajiv is a management professional from IIM Bangalore, where he was part of the Director's Merit List and a Chartered Accountant.

Nitin Banerjee

Group General Counsel, Ola Cabs

Nitin is an international corporate commercial lawyer, qualified both in India and UK. Nitin has a good mix of private practice and in-house experience, in a number of senior legal leadership and country counsel roles. He has worked on transactions in several countries across the globe. His expertise include corporate commercial matters, energy and infrastructure projects, M&A and disposals, litigation & arbitration, governance, joint venture management, compliance and regulatory & policy advocacy.

Nitin has been named as one of the top 25 GC Influencers in India by Chambers and Partners and he also features in India's top 100 GC Powerlist published by Legal 500 in 2018.

Nitin is currently working at ANI Technologies (Ola) as its Group General Counsel.

As Ola’s Group General Counsel, Nitin heads the legal function for all Ola’s businesses, which amongst others, include Olacabs (i.e. mobility business in Indian and several International markets), Ola Financial Services, Ola Electric, Ola Fleet and Ola Food. He leads a team of over 25 talented legal professionals in India, UK, Australia and New Zealand. In his current role, Nitin partners with businesses to drive value-based legal services supporting all funding transactions, shareholder arrangements, M&As, strategic alliances, capital market initiatives, data privacy, compliance, governance, anti-trust issues, litigation, contracts, leveraging technology, risk management and strategic policy advocacy initiatives.

He joined Ola in September 2019 from Vedanta Resources Limited, where he was the Group General Counsel for the globally diversified natural resources company. Vedanta is among the top producers of major commodities, including zinc-lead-silver, iron ore, steel, copper, aluminium, oil and gas.

Sandip Bhagat

Partner, S&R Associates

Sandip Bhagat specializes in capital markets, M&A (public and private), corporate governance and regulatory matters. His practice includes IPOs, InvITs and REITs, takeovers, foreign investment and investigations. He has advised leading corporations and major international and Indian investment banks on a wide range of matters.

Sandip has been recognized as a leading lawyer by the RSG India Report, Chambers Global, Chambers Asia-Pacific, IFLR1000 and the International Who's Who of Capital Markets Lawyers and among India’s top 100 lawyers by the India Business Law Journal.

Sandip previously worked with Shearman & Sterling in New York and Singapore and with P&A Law Offices in New Delhi.

Padmaja Chakravarty

General Counsel, Citi India

Nikhil Chandra

Founder, MyLaw

Nikhil Chandra is an ex-lawyer who has been working primarily in the edtech and content field. He currently drives myLaw to achieve the mission of making quality legal education possible for law students and is building out a learning platform for working professionals across the board. He still remains unsure how to describe himself or what he does.

Wim Dejonghe

Senior Partner, Allen & Overy

Wim Dejonghe has been part of Allen & Overy’s senior leadership team since 2008, first as Global Managing Partner for the eight years to 2016, and subsequently, as the firm’s Senior Partner. During that time he has led the firm through a period of significant change in the legal industry and the global business landscape, winning recognition in 2018 as “Law Firm leader of the Year” in the British Legal Awards.

As Managing Partner, he played a central role in restructuring the partnership and securing the firm’s finances in the wake of the financial crisis, putting the firm on a path of consistent growth and freeing up investment to expand A&O’s network of international offices at a time when many law firms were retrenching. These moves cemented A&O’s position as a global elite law firm.

Sanjeev Dhuna

Partner, Allen & Overy

Sanjeev Dhuna is Chairman of Allen & Overy’s India Group, he is a pre-eminent financing lawyer who advises on leveraged finance and event-driven financings for a range of top investment banks, sponsors and corporates. He has acted on a broad range of high profile and cross-border structured banking transactions including syndicated loans, leveraged and investment grade acquisition financings, property transactions and international financing structures. Sanjeev is innovative and commercial with particular expertise advising on unique complex financing structures. He is often involved in first-of-their-kind financings in Europe and Africa and is the market leading lawyer for Indian transactions.

Kartik Ganapathy

Partner, IndusLaw

Kartik focuses primarily on Private Equity and Venture Capital Investments, Mergers & Acquisitions and Corporate and Securities Law. He has significant experience in both public and private cross border private equity investments, M&A, joint ventures; and Indian corporate and commercial law. Kartik has received various recognitions over the years including being consistently listed as a leading individual in the Corporate & M&A and Private Equity field by Chambers & Partners and The Legal500. Kartik is also recognized as a recommended lawyer in Private Equity / Venture Capital by the Practical Law Company. Kartik was listed as one of the top 25 second generation Indian Corporate Lawyers by RSG Consulting in its first India Report 2010, and was also endorsed as one of the most trusted lawyers in India in the Indian Corporate Counsel Association’s publication ‘The Vanguards’. In the course of his career Kartik has also previously been a Partner at Nishith Desai Associates (a leading Indian tax and TMT law firm), General Counsel to a mid-tier KPO/BPO Company, Legal Counsel at ChrysCapital (one of India’s largest Private Equity Funds), a Senior Associate at Dua Associates, and a Senior Consultant in the Legal Division at Arthur Andersen in Mumbai. Apart from regular speaking engagements, Kartik is also an active member of the International Bar Association. Kartik retired as the Vice-Chair of the Securities Law Committee of the International Bar Association on December 31, 2015, after previously serving as Chair of the Regulatory Affairs Sub-Committee and Regional Representative for Asia.

Pritha Jha

Partner, Pioneer Legal

With over a decade of experience, Pritha Jha is a specialist in private equity transactions and in mergers and acquisitions specifically related to advertising, pharma and healthcare.

Haigreve Khaitan

Partner, Khaitan and Co.

Haigreve is a Senior Partner and heads the Corporate/M&A and Private Equity practice at the Firm. He is an elected member of the National Executive Committee of the Firm which is responsible for the firm’s strategic growth and development. He advises companies, boards of directors and financial institutions on a wide range of corporate matters, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, corporate governance, corporate restructuring and other corporate and securities laws matters.

He has been involved in some of the most high-profile and complex M&A and private equity transactions in India and is sought after for his expertise by some of the most prominent Indian promoters, Indian and international companies, Indian regulatory agencies as well as some of the largest global funds investing in India. He advises a range of large Indian conglomerates and multinational clients in various business sectors, including financial services, manufacturing, retail, infrastructure, steel, software and information technology.

Haigreve is consistently recommended by many of the world’s leading accreditation bodies as one of the most prominent lawyers in India. He is ranked amongst top 100 lawyers in India by India Business Law Journal (IBLJ) through an independent survey of General Counsels. He is on the board of directors of various public listed companies and often speaks at various industry events.

Nikhil Narayanan

Partner, Khaitan and Co.

Nikhil Narayanan is an M&A partner at Khaitan & Co. with a broad corporate practice and extensive cross-border experience in both in London and in India. He advises corporate clients, private equity funds and investment banks in relation to public and private M&A transactions, joint ventures, IPOs and rights issues. He has also advised listed clients in relation to public company matters, governance issues and shareholder activism. In addition to his corporate work, he also regularly advises a number of international funds and global investment banks on complex distressed investments and restructurings in India. He has authored a number of articles in relation to public and private M&A, shareholder activism and distressed investments in international publications. Nikhil received his MBA from London Business School (where he was a Merrill Lynch Scholar), his BCL from St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University (where he was a Radhakrishnan / Chevening Scholar), and his BA and LLB, with Honours, from the National Law School of India University. Nikhil is ranked as a leading lawyer by Asialaw and Legal 500 says that he is “very commercial” and “offers immediate solutions

Ritvik Lukose

Co-Founder & CEO, Vahura

Ritvik Lukose is a corporate lawyer turned entrepreneur. He is a graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. After practicing in Mumbai with a leading corporate law firm, Ritvik began his entrepreneurial journey in 2007, to co-found ventures in the talent management, online learning and the consulting domains. Ritvik has since exited his other ventures, to lead Vahura as CEO and Co-Founder.

An acknowledged market leader in legal recruitment and law practice consulting, Vahura’s expertise also extends to highly strategic board searches for independent directors. Vahura’s recent initiatives include Counselect - India’s first legal secondment service and ReLawnch - programs that help women return to the workplace after a break.

Vahura is a founding member of Agami ()– a platform to catalyse and scale transformative ideas in the areas of law and justice. Ritvik is also a trained mediator and an Advisory Board member of the CAMP Arbitration and Mediation Practice () in Bangalore.

Beatriz Pessoa de Araujo

Partner, Baker McKenzie

Beatriz heads up the firm's Corporate Governance practice. She has advised clients on corporate matters (including transnational M&A and joint ventures) for more than 30 years.

Beatriz would be delighted to share insights from her work in collaboration with the World Economic Forum on the dilemmas facing leaders. Her first collaboration resulted in a White Paper published at the end of March this year - regarding the balance of short- and long-term business pressures (see here), it was re-published by Harvard Law School (see here) and identified as a ‘smart read’ by the Financial Times (see here). She is now working on a new project in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. It is entitled the Future of the Corporation and it is aimed at understanding how changes in financial markets, technology, regulation and the drivers of economic growth shape how businesses are structured in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). It will provide a roadmap to help corporations, investors, and policymakers navigate these shifts that are systemically impacting the business world.

Bijoya Roy

General Counsel, Flipkart

Bijoya Roy is the General Counsel for the Flipkart Group. Bijoya joined Walmart/Flipkart from Thomson Reuters – Global, where she most recently served as General Counsel of Global Emerging Markets. Her experience involves developing sustainable legal strategy to drive growth and lead high-performing teams across Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Russia. Bijoya has held various leadership roles at Tata Housing Development, Asian Paints and Kodak in India and at Thomson Reuters in London, MENA, Africa and Russia. She graduated from LLB Symbiosis Society's Law College in India and holds a postgraduate diploma in European Commission Competition Law from King’s College in London.

Jigar Shah

General Counsel, KKR

Jigar joined KKR in 2018 and heads the Legal and Compliance function for KKR India, working across all the KKR activities in India including its corporate and real estate lending arms, private equity, special situation and infrastructure platforms.

Prior to joining KKR, Jigar was the head of Legal at JPMorgan India during 2013-18, responsible for all transactional and non-transactional legal support, and a member of JPMorgan’s India Country Location Management Committee, India Management Committee and APAC Legal Management Committee as well as its APAC Inclusive Leadership Council which set JPMorgan’s diversity and inclusion agenda in the region. Jigar previously worked at Deutsche Bank during 2002-13 in their London, Hong Kong and Mumbai offices (as Head of Corporate and Investment Bank Legal).

Prior to Deutsche Bank, Jigar was in private practice at various international law firms in London including Linklaters.

Over the years, Jigar has built up a lot of experience in legal and regulatory compliant structuring solutions and delivered various forms of exits at each of KKR, JPM and DB; and led teams supporting the whole spectrum of Corporate and Investment Banking business lines across various asset classes, both flow and structured products. Jigar graduated with an LLB in 1992 from the
University of Leicester, and completed his Law Society Finals from the College of Law in Guildford in 1993, before qualifying as a Solicitor, England & Wales in 1996. Jigar has been listed by Chambers and Partners in 2019 as one of the most influential General Counsels in India.

Cyril Shroff

Managing Partner,

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Mr. Cyril Shroff is the Managing Partner of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas since May 2015 and previously was the Managing Partner of Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co.

With over 37 years of experience in a range of areas, including corporate and securities law, disputes, banking, bankruptcy, infrastructure, private client, financial regulatory and others. He is consistently ranked as “star practitioner” in India by Chambers Global and often regarded as the “M&A King of India” and regularly recognized as an award winning professional across various practices. Mr. Shroff was awarded with “Managing Partner of the Year 2019” at the Asia Legal Business (ALB) India Law Awards and recognized as “Thought Leader for M&A and Governance” by Who’s Who Legal at its Annual Awards in 2019.

Mr. Shroff was a member of SEBI constituted Uday Kotak Committee on Corporate Governance and SEBI Committee on Insider Trading. He is member of first apex advisory committee of the IMC International ADR Centre; task force member of Society of Insolvency Practitioners of India.

He is a member of the Media Legal Defence Initiative International Advisory Board; part of various committees of the CII’s the National Council on Corporate Governance, the National Committee on Capital Markets, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Commodities Markets, Financial Investors and Regulatory Affairs.

He is on the Board of Krea University; member of the Apex Advisory Board of Adani Institute of Infrastructure Management; a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Study of the Legal Profession established by the Harvard Law School and Advisory Board of the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM). Mr. Shroff was admitted to the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa (India) in 1982 after receiving his B.A., LLB degree from the Government Law College in Mumbai. He is also a Solicitor, Bombay Incorporated Law Society, since 1983.

Shardul Shroff

Executive Chairman,

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas

Mr. Shardul S. Shroff is the Executive Chairman at the Firm. He has over 38 years of experience in General Corporate, Mergers & Acquisitions, Insolvency and Bankruptcy, Securities Law, Disinvestment & Capital Markets. Mr. Shroff heads the Insolvency & Bankruptcy practice at the Firm. He is a leading authority on matters related to Corporate Governance, Mergers & Acquisitions, Government Regulation and Bankruptcy & Insolvency Law. He has been instrumental in developing these practice domains in the Firm.

Mr. Shroff has been recently recognised as one of ‘The Game Changers of India, 2018’ by The Economic Times for championing high impact legal services. He is also a recipient of the National Law Day Award from the President of India, which commends Mr. Shroff as a leading corporate lawyer, ‘for his unique contribution to the field of corporate law and leadership in its practice’ and for being ‘instrumental in advancement of India’s corporate law practice at international standards’.

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.

Karan Singh

Managing Partner,

Trilegal

Karan Singh is one of the founding partners of Trilegal. He also serves on the Management Committee of the firm. Karan's areas of practice have ranged from Corporate M&A to Branding & Finance and he has worked extensively across sectors. He now spends most of his time on managing the firm and has overseen its growth from 160 lawyers to 400 lawyers in the last five years.

Aarthi Sivanandh,

Partner,

J. Sagar Associates

Aarthi started her practice in the US in 2001 as a foreign legal consultant concentrating on the US-India business corridor until 2006 and thereafter in India. In 2010, she co-founded Vichar Partners that merged its law practice with J. Sagar Associates in April 2014.

Aarthi’s practice focuses on the full spectrum of corporate laws and transactional matters: mergers and acquisitions, venture capital transactions, private equity, foreign collaborations including joint ventures and licensing transactions. She has extensive experience in working in the India region, having acted for bidders, target companies, sellers and advisors in such transactions.

Her significant work also includes representing India clients investing in foreign markets, family businesses in restructuring of family holdings. Also in charge of the probono practice of the firm, she has led the firm’s cross-office attorney team in efforts relating to the ability of technology providers to supervise media content, which was awarded the 2017 Trust Law Collaboration Award.

A versatile lawyer with experience over 17 years, Aarthi has been noted by clients as a lawyer who “exhibits sharp acumen”, for “great communication skills”, for “keen eye not to miss trouble spots” and for “resolving commercial issues quickly.

Bahram Vakil,

Founder and Senior Partner,

AZB & Partners

Bahram N Vakil is a Founding Partner of AZB & Partners. He was a member of the Bankruptcy Law Reform Committee (which provided and led to the implementation of the IBC) and is currently serving on a Standing Committee that proposes amendments to the IBC including a Sub-Committee to examine a new law for Financial Service Providers. He is also on a Reserve Bank of of India Task Force on the Development of the Secondary Market for Corporate Loans.

Bahram has served as a member on various other high-level government committees for financial reform, foreign direct investment and securities market reform.

Bahram is recognised by Chambers and Partners, Legal 500 and other publications as a leading lawyer for restructuring, banking and project finance in India.

Sandeep Varma,

Vice President and Head of Innovation (India),

DBS Bank

Sandeep heads the DBS Innovation Group (DIG) in India. In this capacity he works closely with the regional team to build a culture of innovation and experimentation within the teams at DBS India. The programs he manages look at building the capability for innovation within internal teams as well as engage the ecosystem to drive outside-in innovation.

Sandeep brings over 20 years of experience in consulting, operations, project management, business development and venture capital. In the past Sandeep has been an entrepreneur as well as help leadership positions with companies both in India and abroad.

Prior to DBS he was Regional Manager – Asia, at Ennovent, an impact focused innovation company and which also managed an impact investment fund.

Sandeep holds a MBA from University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy and a BA(Hons) from University of Huddersfield U.K.