Corporate Counsel - March 2010 (Sample Issue)

INDIA Q&A WITH AMARCHAND MANGALDAS

CAMILLA SUTTON INTERVIEWS SHARDUL SHROFF, MANAGING PARTNER AT AMARCHAND MANGALDAS IN NEW DELHI

SHARDUL SHROFF comes from a long line of highly esteemed Indian lawyers. His Firm, Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. (“Amarchand Mangaldas”), was established in 1917 by his grandfather. Through the years the Firm has expanded from its roots in Mumbai and now has 400 lawyers including 43 partners working out of offices in India’s biggest commercial and financial centres. Amarchand Mangaldas offers full legal service to its high profile clients. Some of the key clients of the Firm are Goldman Sachs, The Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft and The American express Group. Here Shardul Shroff speaks to Camilla Sutton on the development of his Firm, his practice and the recent changes within the Indian legal market more generally.

Shardul S. Shroff is Managing Partner at Amarchand Mangaldas in New Delhi

CAMILLA SUTTON (CS): HOW HAS YOUR FIRM
CHANGED OVER TIME?

Shardul Shroff (SS): Amarchand Mangaldas was set up as a traditional solicitors Firm in Mumbai. My grandfather Mr. Amarchand N. Shroff was its founding partner along with Mr. Mangaldas Mehta. Their trading name was Amarchand & Mangaldas, and this has continued for the last 93 years.

The second generation partners, who built the foundation of the modern avatar of the Firm, were Mr. Suresh A. Shroff and Mrs. Bharati S. Shroff. They invested in modernizing and transforming the practice from 1966 to 1994. It was during this phase that we expanded and set up new branches at New Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The practice focus during this second phase was financial services, financial institutions and the development of our banking practice. These areas continue to remain the backbone of the Firm’s practice in Mumbai.

The third generation of Amarchand Mangaldas took over the reins in 1994, when Mr. Suresh A. Shroff passed away. Since then my younger brother, Mr. Cyril Shroff and I have been at the helm of affairs under the guidance of our senior partner Mrs. Bharati S. Shroff, who continues to share her experience in the Firm even at the age of 77. Today, the Firm is the largest multi-jurisdictional, multi-locational full-service firm in India.

CS: HOW HAVE YOUR AREAS OF LEGAL
EXPERTISE DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS?

SS: 30 years ago I was invited by the Firm’s management to set up the New Delhi branch. The Firm was primarily a litigation boutique firm in New Delhi, but when the economy liberalized in 1991, I took the initiative to develop the Firm’s corporate and transactional practice. The initial thrust of my practice was Projects and Project Finance but increasingly complex Mergers, Joint Ventures and Public Takeovers have occupied most of my time and professional expertise.

Since the early stages of the telecom industry revolution in 1992-1994, I have been fairly active in the arena of technology, media and telecommunications. This was the time when the first privatization tenders were made for cellular telephony (GSM) and lines, pagers, satellite phones and internet providers. I have also been involved in policy making in the telecom space and in telecom financing since then.

The Firm, under my guidance, is also the Knowledge Partner of the largest Asian Media Conference called FRAMES, conducted by the Indian Chambers of Commerce FICCI. I have been instrumental in the preparation of the Entertainment Law Handbook that is prepared for each FRAMES conference, which deals with all the emerging legal issues concerning film, media, technology and entertainment.

Given that the IT growth story in India has been in cities like Hyderabad and Bengaluru, the key initiatives to improve data protection laws originated in these southern states. I was part of the team that developed draft laws for the State of Andhra Pradesh and the Union of India for data protection where we delved deeply into the issues of privacy, reciprocity of laws and enforcement in the context of the Information Technology Act of India.

Besides my expertise in these areas, as the entrepreneur of the Firm, over the last 5 years I have established several practice areas like Intellectual Property, IT, Climate Change, Labor & Employment and Taxation. But my first love still remains Corporate Law, Corporate Governance and Public and Private M&A and I will continue to focus on these areas besides these new practice areas.