DMD Advocates

International Litigation and ADR

Senior Partner, Founder Member and Managing Partner, Mumbai

Fereshte D Sethna, Senior Partner, founder member of the law firm DMD andManaging Partner of its Mumbai Offices, heads the Firm's International Litigation & ADRGroup.

Ms. Sethna has 25 years of litigation and arbitration experience, handling complex work across multiple jurisdictions, in diverse industries.

Her global reach of work spans The United States of America, United Kingdom, Europe, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Africa, Sultanate of Oman and other countries.

Across oil & gas to infrastructure, banking & finance to transportation, real estate, mining, energy, metallurgical, information technology, telecom, communications, hospitality, etc., she advises and represents global conglomerates, prominent Indian business houses, industrialists, sovereign governments, in a wide gamut of cross-border work, often as a key driver in international litigation teams, in association with prominent international law firms, international counsel, global investment and business advisors.

Ms. Sethna'ss extensive arbitration, mediation and litigation experience encompasses commercial contracts, investment treaties, infrastructure, modernization technology, information & data management, private equity investments, bankruptcy, shareholder oppression & mismanagement, commodity trading, product liability, marine and aviation, dispute resolution under the aegis of various renowned arbitration councils, including ICC, ICA, LCIA, SMC, SIAC, recognition & enforcement of arbitration awards.

The wide gamut of practise areas, permit her to handle complex matters, entailing the inextricably linked interplay across elements of corporate, civil and criminal law, in the realm of white collar crime, money laundering, serious and complex fraud, corruption, bribery, and is widely considered a core strategist, executing parallel litigation strategies.

Ms. Sethna exercises rights of audience across Courts, tribunals and adjudicatory authorities in India, arbitral and conciliation bodies internationally. In India, she appears in Supreme Court of India at New Delhi, across High Courts of Bombay, Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, District Courts across India, Special Central Bureau of Investigation Courts, Magistrates & Sessions Courts across India, Securities Appellate Tribunal, Authority for Advance Rulings, Income-tax Appellate Tribunal, Customs Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, Company Law Boards, Enforcement Directorate, apart from arbitral tribunals, mediation and conciliation forums. Her trial work experience is a key asset in assessing, evaluating, planning and implementing formidable litigation strategies.

Ms. Sethna, before diversifying into wider areas of practise, originally practiced maritime law, and presently supervises the firm's admiralty and shipping law work. As a reputed maritime lawyer, she has extensively handled P&I and H&M work, ship sale & purchase, mortgages, sequestrations, advised around wreck & salvage, towage, demolition, collision, dredging, general average, piracy, port concessions, new buildings, port property damage, port authority inspections & claims, charter party, transshipment, hazardous cargoes, oil spill damage, bills of lading, stowaways, wages, death & disability, passenger liability, smuggling penalties, freight, dead freight, lay time, cargo damage, comingling, short & non-delivery disputes, stevedore disputes, imprudent trades, port storage installations, and remains the first 'port of call' for ship-owners, charterers, port infrastructure and shipping companies.

Ms. Sethna's practice areas include a significant body of taxation work, encompassing direct, indirect and international taxation, more recently successfully representing a global major in a US$ 2.1 billion tax litigation resulting in a landmark judgment from the Supreme Court of India, in the field of tax treatment of international M&A, and landmark judgments in the arena of foreign capital inflows and transfer pricing from the Bombay High Court.

English,

US India Business Council, International Chamber of Commerce, India

LL.M. University of Mumbai, LL.B. University of Mumbai