Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan

The firm: Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) is a premier full-service Indian law firm specializing in areas such as corporate & M&A/PE, dispute resolution, taxation and intellectual property.

The firm, through its 14 offices across India works closely on litigation and commercial law matters, advising and representing clients both in India and abroad.

The firm has handled more than 30,000 litigation cases before various forums including 2,000 cases before the Supreme Court of India. Over the last 37 years, the firm has worked with over 15,500 clients which range from start-ups, small & medium enterprises, to large Indian corporates and multinational companies.

The professionals within the firm bring diverse experience to service clients across sectors such as commodities, automobile, manufacturing, healthcare, IT/ITeS, FMCG, hospitality, real estate, petrochemicals, e-commerce, fintech, big data, renewables, cryptocurrency, gaming and sports. The firm takes pride in the value-based, client-focused approach that combines knowledge of the law with industry experience to design bespoke legal solutions.

The firm’s driving principles to achieve our vision are integrity, knowledge, innovation, and collaboration

International desk: The firm has a focused International desk which comprises of dual-qualified lawyers (India and US/ Europe mostly) with expertise across practice areas such as cross border M&As and investments, anti-trust / competition law, international trade law and international commercial arbitration. These attorneys have significant experience in advising clients across multiple jurisdictions such as US, UK, Italy, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Korea, China, Australia, Middle East, Africa etc.

International presence and alliances: LKS is an India member firm of a top International legal network – Terralex. & First Law International.

Practice areas:

• International arbitration and commercial disputes
• Aviation
• Banking and finance
• Competition/antitrust
• Corporate
• M&A and PE/VC
• Data protection and technology
• Tax (indirect, GST, direct, M&A and international tax)
• Insolvency
• Customs
• International trade and WTO
• IPR
• Employment
• Environment
• Food safety
• Infrastructure
• Real estate

Main areas of practice
Tax (indirect, GST, direct, M&A and international tax): With experience and years of knowledge in direct, indirect and international tax, the team handles tax disputes and represents clients at various levels from the quasi-judicial authority up to the Supreme Court of India. The team advises on transitional provisions and helps in re-designing supply chain, training, hand-holding and compliance review for assessing GST readiness. Additionally, the attorneys are adept in advising corporations on issues relating to business re-structuring, setting up new units, withholding taxes, royalty and fee for technical services, transfer pricing and contracting.

International arbitration and commercial disputes: Apart from representing clients across various authorities, tribunals and courts, the team specialises in international as well as domestic arbitrations, under institutional rules and ad hoc arbitrations. The team has represented arbitration cases in all forums, in every possible format.

Competition: The competition law team has expertise in drafting and reviewing agreements, obtaining M&A approvals, representing clients before judicial and statutory authorities and framing competition compliance strategies for enterprises across various sectors.

IPR: The firm’s internationally ranked multidisciplinary IPR team serves Indian and global businesses to obtain and enforce the entire spectrum of IPR. Services provided by L&S include opining on patentability, patenting, filing, prosecution, pre and post grant opposition, freedom-to-operate, due diligence, patent watch, evolving effective patent strategy, trademark registration and protection, anti-trust, plant variety protection (PVP), IP litigation and licensing of copyright to name a few.

Corporate, M&A and PE/VC: The team advises various leading Indian and multinational corporations across diverse sectors on matters pertaining to joint ventures, mergers, demergers, acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, legal due diligence, spin-offs, foreign direct investments and entry strategies, restructurings including global restructurings of various multinational companies, regulatory approvals, setting up of industrial plants in India, sale of businesses, distributorship and commercial advisory agreements in India, real estate, employment, compliances, ESOP schemes, drafting, vetting and negotiating of commercial contracts and other corporate transactional work.

Customs and international trade: The team caters to WTO and international trade disputes arising out of or involving India. The firm’s attorneys have handled more than 400 antidumping and anti- subsidy investigations initiated by India, EU, USA, Korea, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey. The team also handles wide variety of matters pertaining to HS Classification, Customs Valuation, FTA, safeguards investigations, market access and national treatment.

Insolvency and bankruptcy: The team has been involved in several matters involving the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, representing both creditors as well as debtors before various company law and appellate tribunals across various sectors.

Environmental law: This team provides strategic and coherent advice to clients on issues pertaining to all aspects of environmental law such as air, water, forests, hazardous substances, genetically modified organisms, biological diversity. The team has rich experience to conduct compliance audit, provide legal advice and represent clients before the National Green Tribunal, High Courts, and the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in contentious matter.

Food safety law: The team offers advisory, litigation and consulting services to various stakeholders in the food chain in all areas of food law and procedures including classification of food/food ingredients under the Indian Food code, usage of food additives, packaging and labelling, nutritional/health claims, food recall, import procedure compliance, country of origin determinations, product approval and various other aspects of food law.

Real estate: The team is equipped to advise clients on all real estate related aspects, including local practices and requirements. The team has assisted government authorities, investors, financial institutions and other leading companies across various sectors, in relation to various aspects and commercial transactions involving real estate.

Employment: The team has rich experience in advising our multinational and domestic clients across sectors on various labour and employment issues by offering clear, business-friendly and pragmatic solutions.

Banking and finance: The team is well-positioned to support banking, corporate and cross-border financing requirements. It assists clients in structuring complex transactions that are successful and cater to regulatory and industry concerns.

Infrastructure and energy: The firm’s attorneys have been involved in various complex transactions and in framing model agreements with government agencies in various sectors where private entrepreneurship has shown interest.

Aviation: The team assists in structuring of transactions pursuant to legal and regulatory requirements pertaining to sale, purchase, wet and dry leasing of aircrafts, financing and chartering of aircrafts and buy back of planes. The firm advises on civil aviation requirements and approvals from Ministry of Civil Aviation extending to infrastructure and greenfield projects.

Data protection and technology: The team advises businesses, public sector bodies and not-for-profit organizations on all areas of data protection, privacy law, information governance and freedom of information. The team offers the best of both worlds: IP and regulatory affairs specialists who work directly alongside our privacy professionals.