Fladgate LLP

Corporate, India desk.

I am Fladgate's Senior Partner, with overall leadership of the firm. This involves ensuring that the partnership achieves its strategic goals while focusing on engagement and communication both internally and externally. I also co-lead the India Desk with Mythily Katsaris, and I am recognised for my expertise in advising Indian companies, and overseas companies wanting to do business in India, as well as high net worth clients from the Indian diaspora.

I have been dealing with companies and entrepreneurs in India since the mid-1980s, and under my leadership, Fladgate’s India team has established a market reputation as leading advisers to Indian companies and high net worth individuals. My clients benefit from my wider knowledge of international tax and estate planning, wealth management and private funds.

I have a wealth of contacts in India, not just with intermediaries such as lawyers and accountants, but also with promoters and controlling shareholders of significant companies. I advise clients in sectors including financial services, real estate, infrastructure, hotels and hospitality.

I am passionate about leveraging resources and influence to meet the needs of vulnerable people in societies, and have led major philanthropic efforts to do so. I have chaired the disability rights charity Sense International since 2011 and been a trustee since 2004. I am also the Chair of Anti-Slavery International, a UK charity established in 1839 and regarded as the oldest human rights organisation in the world. I am a trustee of The Hospice Biographers, a charity which offers terminally ill patients the chance to have their life stories professionally recorded on audio for their pleasure and relief, and for their families to hear their voices and memories for generations to come. I was a trustee of One World Media Trust and a trustee of Victim Support, where I acted as Vice Chair from 2007-2010 and was also Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee. I was also a Founder of the Society of Asian Lawyers, and was Chair of the organisation for many years.

Trained Birbeck Montague Solicitors; qualified 1984; made partner Fladgate 2003.

English, Gujarati, Hindi.

Sunil was the founder and former chairman (for many years) of the Society of Asian Lawyers in the UK and has close links and an extensive network of contacts within the UK Asian community. He was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Asian lawyers, not just in relation to his promotion of Asian lawyers in Britain, but also for his charitable activities.

Sunil is involved in three UK charities:

Sense International – Chair – the charity assists people with the double disability of being deaf and blind. One World Media –Trustee – the charity seeks to influence media in the developed world in terms of its reporting on the developing world, and also assists media in the developing world in the promotion of good governance and human rights. The Hospice Biographers – Trustee – the charity aims to give terminally ill patients the opportunity to have their life stories professionally recorded on audio.

Sunil has previously been a member of the Business Advisory Panel of the Bank of England, and a Trustee and the Vice-Chair of Victim Support, a UK national charity that supports victims and witnesses of crimes.

The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys School; University of West London.