The International A-List 2023

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INTRODUCTION

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.

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Sheila Ahuja

	Sheila Ahuja Allen & Overy Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; emerging markets

Babita Ambekar

	Babita Ambekar CMS London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI out of India; private equity & venture capital

Philip Badge

	Philip Badge Linklaters Singapore
Key practice areas: Banking & finance

Arun Balasubramanian

	Arun Balasubramanian Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Hong kong/ Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; dispute resolution

Sonia Baldia

Sonia Baldia
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton
Washington DC

Tel: +1 202 508 5840
Email: sbaldia@kilpatricktownsend.com
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; intellectual property

Sonia Baldia is a partner in Kilpatrick Townsend’s commercial and technology transactions practice in Washington DC, and leads the firm’s India practice. She is a highly regarded, dually qualified lawyer with bar admissions in the US and India.

Sonia has more than 20 years of experience with a keen focus on US-India cross-border matters, including FDI, strategic acquisitions, joint ventures, intellectual property protection, IT and business process outsourcing, establishing subsidiaries for software development, and advising on manufacturing and supply chains in India. She also advises Indian corporates on global expansion and inbound investments into the US market. Sonia grew up in India and earned a law degree there before earning additional law degrees in the US. She speaks fluent Hindi and is very knowledgeable about navigating the business and cultural environment in India.

She is consistently recognised for her expertise by various legal directories, including Chambers USA – America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Legal 500 and The Best Lawyers in America®. Client testimonials state that she is “excellent”, “best in business”, “demonstrates a high level of sophistication and commercial awareness”; she “is a pleasure to work with” and has “terrific knowledge of the market conditions in addition to the legal aspects”.

Previously, Lawyers of Color named her on the 50 Under 50 list of most influential minority law professors in the US when she served as an IP and corporate law professor. Many of her publications on IP, technology, outsourcing and US-India-related topics have been widely cited, including by the Delhi High Court in a case of first impression on grey market goods (Samsung Electronics Company Limited and Another v G Choudhary and Anr, 2006) where Justice Vikramjit Sen quoted verbatim at length from her article.

Kilpatrick Townsend is a global law firm with 23 offices in the US, Europe, China and Japan. The firm has offices in key US markets, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, New York, Phoenix, Raleigh, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Washington DC and Winston-Salem. The firm’s cross-disciplinary team of lawyers routinely advise clients on a variety of US-India matters ranging from M&A, private equity, venture capital and IP to government relations, tax, arbitration, immigration and employment issues.

Ranajoy Basu

	Ranajoy Basu McDermott Will & Emery London
Key practice areas: Structured finance; ESG, renewable energy, sustainable finance; India practice

Jamie A Benson

	Jamie A Benson Duane Morris & Selvam Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets

Manoj Bhargava

	Manoj Bhargava Sidley Austin Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets

Sidharth Bhasin

	Sidharth Bhasin Latham & Watkins Singapore
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital; projects, energy, infrastructure & resources

Gautam Bhattacharyya

	Gautam Bhattacharyya Reed Smith London
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Philip Boeckman

	Philip Boeckman Cravath Swaine & Moore London
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/ M&A; private equity & venture capital

Piusha Bose

	Piusha Bose Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; FDI out of India

Raja Bose

Raja Bose
K&L Gates
Singapore

Tel: +65 6507 8125
Email: raja.bose@klgates.com
Key practice areas: Anti-bribery and anti-corruption; construction and infrastructure; dispute resolution

Raja Bose leads the firm’s commercial disputes and international arbitration practice in Asia and has more than 20 years of experience in international dispute resolution having worked in both London and Singapore. He is qualified both as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore as well as admitted as a solicitor of England and Wales.

He is also a qualified arbitrator and is a fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of the UK as well as of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. Raja is on the panel of arbitrators of a number of arbitration institutions including the SIAC, the KLRCA, the ICA and the HKIAC. He is also a board member and director of the UK Chartered Institute of Arbitrators – Singapore Branch.

Raja has experience conducting international arbitrations with seats in Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Dubai, Malaysia, London, Paris, Geneva and New York under a variety of trade association and international arbitration centre rules, including UNCITRAL, the LCIA, LMAA, GAFTA, CIETAC, BANI, the HKIAC, the KLRCA, the SIAC, the ICC, the AAA, the VIAC and the ICSID.

While his practice focuses on international commercial dispute resolution with an emphasis on international arbitration, he also has considerable experience supervising, co-ordinating, and managing complex court-based litigation in a wide number of countries in the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region including South Asia, Indochina and Southeast Asia.

In addition to his experience in cross-border multi-jurisdictional disputes in infrastructure, construction, shipping, marine insurance, oil and gas, international sale of goods, trade finance, and mortgage enforcement, Raja has also been involved in a number of high profile investor/state disputes and investment treaty arbitrations including defending the governments of India and Bangladesh as well as pursuing actions on behalf of foreign investors against the governments of Thailand, Egypt and Sri Lanka.

Raja also spends a considerable amount of his time providing strategic and structuring advice to clients involved in difficult and complex problems in Asia, which do not necessarily involve formal legal proceedings.

Neeraj Budhwani

	Neeraj Budhwani Milbank Hongkong
Key practice areas: Cross-border private equity and M&A transactions

Kit Burden

	Kit Burden DLA Piper London
Key practice areas: Intellectual property; technology

Geoffrey Burgess

	Geoffrey Burgess Debevoise & Plimpton London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

David Carpenter

	David Carpenter Mayer Brown New York
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; private equity & venture capital

Bill Carr

	Bill Carr CMS Cameron Mckenna Nabarro London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; energy; FDI out of India; infrastructure & resources; energy, infrastructure & resources

Biswajit Chatterjee

Biswajit Chatterjee
Hogan Lovells
Singapore

Tel: +65 8157 6204
Email: biswajit.chatterjee@hoganlovells.com
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Biswajit (Bis) Chatterjee is the managing partner of the Singapore office of Hogan Lovells, co-heads the India practice and leads the US securities practice focused on India, SE Asia and Middle East. He focuses on equity and debt capital markets, corporate finance, M&A and PE transactions in India, 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 corporates and conglomerates in growing and/or reorganising their global operations on corporate commercial matters. Bis has worked on a range of regulatory issues, including economic sanctions, government procurement, white collar investigations, corporate governance and regulatory issues.

Bis is highly ranked by Chambers & Partners, Legal 500, IFLR 1000, Best Lawyers, and other legal directories. Chambers Global has consistently (2010 – 2023) ranked him as a highly regarded lawyer and client testimonials state that he is “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”.

Kah Chin Chu

	Kah Chin Chu Baker Mckenzie Singapore
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; energy; infrastructure & resources; projects

Andrew Dale

	Andrew Dale Ropes & Gray Hong Kong SAR
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; investigations, risk assessments, compliance due diligence, and general compliance advice

Phillip D'Costa

	Phillip D’Costa Penningtons Manches Cooper London
Key practice areas: Commercial disputes; commercial litigation and arbitration

Valerie Demont

	Valerie Demont Sheppard Mullin New York
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A

John Dewar

	John Dewar Milbank London
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; oil and gas; projects, energy, infrastructure & resources

Arvind Dixit

	Arvind Dixit Corrs Chambers Westgarth Greater Melbourne Area
Key practice areas: IT, IP and data protection

Rajeev Duggal

	Rajeev Duggal Skadden Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Paul Gair

	Paul Gair TLT Solicitors London
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; dispute resolution

Pallavi Gopinath Aney

	Pallavi Gopinath Aney Allen & Overy Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets

Ankit Goyal

	Ankit Goyal Allen & Gledhill Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

James Grandolfo

	James Grandolfo Milbank Hong Kong
Key practice areas: Capital markets

Jaya Gupta

	Jaya Gupta Addleshaw Goddard London
Key practice areas: Corporate transactions; compliance; governance

Nipun Gupta

	Nipun Gupta Bird & Bird London
Key practice areas: Automotive; corporate/M&A; energy & utilities

Rajiv Gupta

	Rajiv Gupta Latham & Watkins Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A

Rahul Guptan

	Rahul Guptan White & Case Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets

David He

	David He Gunderson Dettmer Singapore
Key practice areas: Private equity & venture capital; startups; technology

Savi Hebbur

	Savi Hebbur Linklaters London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; FDI out of India

Ian Ho

	Ian Ho Simpson Thacher Hong Kong
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Martin Imhof

	Martin Imhof Heuking Kuhn Luer Wojtek Dusseldorf
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; international supply; joint ventures; private equity & venture capital

Narayan Iyer

	Narayan Iyer Linklaters London
Key practice areas: Banking & finance

Sushma Jobanputra

	Sushma Jobanputra Jones Day Singapore
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; corporate/M&A; FDI into India

Sunil Kakkad

	Sunil Kakkad Gowling WLG London
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; FDI out of India

Boon Siew Kam

	Boon Siew Kam Dechert Singapore
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; private equity & venture capital

Rahul Kapoor

Rahul Kapoor
Morgan Lewis
Palo Alto

Tel: +1.650.843.7580
Email: rahul.kapoor@morganlewis.com
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; intellectual property; private equity & venture capital

With a focus on global commercial, intellectual property and technology transactions, Rahul Kapoor advises clients on strategic alliances and corporate partnering deals in the technology and life sciences industries that includes a focus on India-related matters. He also handles services, supply and distribution and patent licensing agreements.

Rahul is the leader of Morgan Lewis’ India initiative, the local practice group leader of the Silicon Valley and San Francisco corporate transactions practice, managing partner of the Silicon Valley office, and previously served as the firmwide hiring partner and on the firm’s advisory board.

He brings a deep technology background and a comprehensive understanding of the business and technology markets to his practice. In addition to practicing law, Rahul taught an IP strategy class for 10 years at University of California Berkeley School of Law. Morgan Lewis is a global law firm with offices in North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

Raj Karia

	Raj Karia Norton Rose Fulbright London
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/ M&A

Amit Kataria

	Amit Kataria King & Spalding New York/ London
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Srinivas Kaushik

	Srinivas Kaushik Kirkland & Ellis New York
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Stephanie Keen

	Stephanie Keen Hogan Lovells Lee & Lee Singapore
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; private equity & venture capital

Ryo Kotoura

	Ryo Kotoura Anderson Mori & Tomotsune Tokyo
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; dispute resolution

Yohei Koyama

	Yohei Koyama Mori Hamada & Matsumoto Tokyo
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; FDI out of India

Abhishek Krishnan

	Abhishek Krishnan Goodwin Procter Hong Kong
Key practice areas: Private equity; joint ventures; venture capital

Karthik Kumar

	Karthik Kumar Orrick Singapore
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; corporate/M&A; projects, energy, infrastructure & resources

Ashok Lalwani

	Ashok Lalwani Baker Mckenzie Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A

Laurence Lieberman

	Laurence Lieberman Taylor Wessing London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; dispute resolution; FDI out of India

Bobby Majumder

	Bobby Majumder Frost Brown Todd Dallas
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Aditi Mathur

	Aditi Mathur Shook Lin & Bok Singapore
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; energy; infrastructure & resources; ESG projects

Jamie McLaren

	Jamie McLaren Herbert Smith Freehills Singapore
Key practice areas: private equity, M&A and joint ventures

Smitha Menon

	Smitha Menon Wong Partnership Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; restructuring and insolvency

Malcolm Moller

	Malcolm Moller Appleby Port Louis
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; corporate/M&A; projects, energy, infrastructure & resources

Alan Montgomery

	Alan Montgomery Herbert Smith Freehills London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; joint ventures and investments; pharmaceuticals and healthcare

Deepak Nambiar

Deepak Nambiar
Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren
New York

Tel: +1 212 808 7982
Email: dnambiar@kelleydrye.com
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; private equity & venture capital

Deepak Nambiar is a partner in Kelley Drye’s New York office and the chair of the firm’s highly rated India practice group. He focuses his practice on a wide range of commercial matters, with a special emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, and technology transactions.

As part of his corporate practice, Deepak has worked on several US and cross-border mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and private equity investment transactions, worth several billions of dollars. He has also counselled clients in the formation of joint ventures and other corporate structures.

As part of his technology and outsourcing practice, Deepak has represented prominent corporations on complex software licensing arrangements and transactions involving the outsourcing of information technology and business process functions.

Gautam Narasimhan

	Gautam Narasimhan Allen & Overy Singapore
Key practice areas: Banking and finance; private equity & venture capital

Nandan Nelivigi

	Nandan Nelivigi White & Case New York
Key practice areas: Projects, energy, infrastructure & resources

Meraj Noor

	Meraj Noor DLA Piper Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; FDI into India

Robin Ogle

	Robin Ogle Slaughter and May London
Key practice areas: Asset management; capital markets; corporate and M&A; private equity

Harsh Pais

	Harsh Pais Allen & Overy London
Key practice areas: Corporate; M&A

Chris Parsons

	Chris Parsons Herbert Smith Freehills London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; FDI out of India

Ferish Patel

	Ferish Patel Cooley Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Rahul Patel

	Rahul Patel King & Spalding Atlanta
Key practice areas: Private equity & venture capital

Shashwat Patel

	Shashwat Patel Simmons & Simmons London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Jai Pathak

	Jai Pathak Gibson Dunn Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Nicholas Peacock

	Nicholas Peacock Bird & Bird London
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; FDI into India; FDI out of India

Jonathan Pentzien

	Jonathan Pentzien Gunderson Dettmer Singapore
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Sherina Petit

	Sherina Petit Stewarts London
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Prakash Pillai

	Prakash Pillai Clyde & Co Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Kelvin Poon

	Kelvin Poon Rajah & Tann Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Avinash Pradhan

	Avinash Pradhan Rajah & Tann Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; FDI out of India; projects; energy; infrastructure & resources

Nallini Puri

	Nallini Puri Cleary Gottlieb London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Mahesh Rai

	Mahesh Rai Drew & Napier Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; energy; infrastructure & resources; projects

Vikna Rajah

	Vikna Rajah Rajah & Tann Singapore
Key practice areas: Tax & private wealth

Philippe Reich

	Philippe Reich Baker Mckenzie Zurich
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; FDI out of India

Stuart Rubin

	Stuart Rubin Ashurst London
Key practice areas: Capital markets

Dipen Sabharwal

	Dipen Sabharwal White & Case London
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Tihir Sarkar

	Tihir Sarkar Cleary Gottlieb London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Kamal Shah

	Kamal Shah Stephenson Harwood London
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Daniel Sharma

	Daniel Sharma DLA Piper Frankfurt
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution; investigations

Nish Shetty

	Nish Shetty Clifford Chance Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Amit Singh

	Amit Singh Linklaters Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets

Kabir Singh

	Kabir Singh Clifford Chance Singapore
Key practice areas: Dispute resolution

Parm Singh

	Parm Singh Eversheds Sutherland London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; financial institutions

Ragi Singh

	Ragi Singh Gowling WLG Birmingham & London
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI out of India; private equity & venture capital

Parveet Singh Gandoak

	Parveet Singh Gandoak King & Spalding Singapore
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; private equity & venture capital

Sivanesan Sivagnanaratnam

	Sivanesan Sivagnanaratnam Dentons Rodyk & Davidson Singapore
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI into India; private equity & venture capital

Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan

	Siddhartha Sivaramakrishnan McDermott Will & Emery Singapore
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; ESG, impact & sustainability

Jonathan Stone

	Jonathan Stone Skadden Hong Kong
Key practice areas: Capital markets; corporate/M&A; private equity & venture capital

Michael Sturrock

	Michael Sturrock Latham & Watkins Singapore
Key practice areas: Corporate finance and M&A

Taeko Suzuki

	Taeko Suzuki Nishimura & Asahi Tokyo
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; dispute resolution; FDI into India

Ralph Voltmer

Ralph Voltmer
Partner Covington & Burling
Washington

Tel: +1 202 662 5479
Email: rvoltmer@cov.com
Key practice areas: Corporate/M&A; FDI out of India; private equity & venture capital

Ralph Voltmer Jr is chair of Covington’s India practice and a partner in the firm’s corporate group. He is also a member of the USIBC board of directors.

He has been active in India for 25 years, working with companies such as Reliance Industries, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Piramal Enterprises, UPL, InterGlobe, SpiceJet, TAFE, Mindtree, the Aditya Birla Group, the Tata Group, OmniActive Health Technologies, Sterlite Technologies and Balkrishna Industries.

He advises both US and foreign clients in cross-border transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and financings.

Ralph is named to the India Business Law Journal’s International A-list, which consists of the world’s top 100 India-focused lawyers at international law firms. He also is ranked in Chambers Global for Corporate/M&A (India) and Corporate/M&A (US).

Ralph earned his JD from Georgetown University Law Center, an MA from University of California Riverside and a BA from Wheaton College.

Pallavi Mehta Wahi

Pallavi Mehta Wahi
K&L Gates
Seattle

Tel: +1 206 370 6648
Email: pallavi.wahi@klgates.com
Key practice areas: Complex commercial litigation and disputes; IP litigation; technology

Pallavi Wahi serves as co-managing partner of the United States (covering 24 offices) at K&L Gates. She also serves on the firmwide management committee, as managing partner of the Seattle office and as co-chair of the firmwide India practice.

She frequently represents clients in complex commercial litigation matters and works closely with many Fortune 50 and other companies worldwide, representing their interests with an emphasis on corporate and technology issues. She has argued before various tribunals and courts in hearings and at trial with success. Pallavi has represented clients in multiple jurisdictions and cross-border disputes involving commercial and intellectual property issues. She also acts as the trusted adviser and litigator for several clients across a wide range of jurisdictions, countries (including India), and business sectors.

Pallavi is an experienced and well-known litigator in the business community. In 2022, she was appointed to the Seattle Branch Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to represent the interests of the 12th Reserve District and help the board fulfill its policy and operational responsibilities. She is currently serving as the chair of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce Board.

She has been included in the International A-List by India Business Law Journal since 2019. She is ranked in Chambers, Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers, and has received many awards for her practice excellence and contributions to the legal community. Pallavi has been included in the Puget Sound Business Journal’s Power 100, spotlighting the 100 most influential business leaders in the Puget Sound area and named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the United States by editors and writers across The Business Journals’ network of more than 40 publications.

Pallavi grew up in India, went to college there, and speaks fluent Hindi. She is well versed with the culture and business environment of the country. Pallavi received her BA from St Stephen’s College, New Delhi. She also received her BA from the University of Cambridge Tripos Law, Magdalene College, Cambridge University, in 1999 (which received an automatic conversion to an MA).

Gregory Xu

	Gregory Xu Stephenson Harwood Singapore
Key practice areas: Banking & finance; corporate/M&A; projects, energy, infrastructure & resources

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