Firm Profile > Phoenix Legal > New Delhi, India
Phoenix Legal Offices
1-3 floor, 254 ,
okhla phase 3
NEW DELHI
110020
India
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Phoenix Legal > The Legal 500 Rankings
Banking and finance Tier 2
Phoenix Legal's practice undertakes syndicated lending, structured finance, acquisition finance and project finance matters for a wide range of clients, including banks and financial institutions. Sawant Singh focuses primarily on private equity, project finance, securitisation and asset reconstruction mandates. Abhishek Saxena advises clients on cross-border transactions, particularly investments in the energy sector. Aditya Bhargava specialises in structured finance, rupee term loans and ECB deals.
Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Key clients
CredAble
Deutsche Bank AG (DB)
Northern Arc Capital Limited
Corporate and M&A Tier 2
Corporate and commercial law are core areas of practice at Phoenix Legal, which has a strong track record of handling transactions in regulated sectors, including insurance, financial services, pharmaceutical, infrastructure and natural resources. Showcasing experience in inbound and outbound investments, the practice is further skilled at advising on corporate governance, tax structures and regulatory requirements. Manjula Chawla is a seasoned practitioner in strategic corporate transactions involving multiple jurisdictions. Saket Shukla has extensive experience in the insurance sector.
Practice head(s):
Other key lawyers:
Key clients
Cooper – Standard
Visteon Corporation
Dell Inc
Mitsui & Co.
Ciena Coporation
Volaris Group
Dods Group LLC
ARG Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited
Behavioral Services Holding LLC, USA
BIPS Systems Limited
Apis Partners
Reliance ADAG Group
Sanctum Wealth Management Pvt. Ltd.
BOPA Pte. Ltd. (BOPA)
MUGH 2 Limited
Max Healthcare InstituteLimited
Dispute resolution: litigation Tier 2
Phoenix Legal’s team represents public and private sector clients in various corporate, civil, and criminal disputes across India’s courts, including matters in the Supreme Court. Vasanth Rajasekaran frequently acts for clients in litigation relating to the enforcement of arbitral awards, in addition to handling corporate and commercial litigation. Mrinal Ojha focuses on commercial disputes in various sectors, including insurance, infrastructure, and energy.
Practice head(s):
Key clients
IFFCO Tokio General Insurance Co Ltd
Federation of Indian Airlines
Pioneer India Electronic Pvt Ltd
Builders Association of India
ARG Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd
ICICI Bank
New India Assurance Co. Limited
Calderys India Refractories Limited
Business Broadcast News Private Limited
Insurance Tier 2
The strong contentious offering at Phoenix Legal’s insurance practice regularly represents domestic and international reinsurers and assurance companies in complex coverage disputes. Co-head Mrinal Ojha fields expertise in employment practice liabilities while challenges to claim settlements are regularly handled by co-heads Trinath Tadakamalla and Debarshi Dutta, often with a cross-border element. Co-head Saket Shukla leads on non-contentious transactional support, policy-building engagements and regulatory advice. Insureds in the pharmaceuticals and automotive sectors also retain the team for litigation support.
Practice head(s):
Key clients
New India Assurance Co Ltd
HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company Ltd
IFFCO-TOKIO General Insurance Company
Nagarjuna Agrichem Limited (NACL)
Bharti AXA General Insurance Company Limited
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company (BAGIC)
Projects and energy Tier 2
Phoenix Legal acts for lenders and borrowers in project finance transactions, and is adept at handling M&A deals involving infrastructure assets. The practice also assists with the preparation of concession agreements, PPP structures, EPC contracts, regulatory aspects of projects and dispute resolution. On the energy front, practitioners attract mandates on the legal issues of the entire supply chain, covering gas, LNG and conventional and renewable power. Sawant Singh leads matters pertaining to project finance, while Abhishek Saxena has significant experience in cross-border deals, PPP models and tender processes in relation to energy projects. Pranav Srivastava focuses on transactional work involving the energy sector and infrastructure disputes.Practice head(s):
Key clients
Petronet LNG Limited
HPCL Shapoorji Energy Private Limited
I Squared Capital
Atlantic Gulf and Pacific Company of Manila
GSPC LNG Limited
JOULON (an asset ownership and management services company formed in partnership with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co)
Andritz Hydro
Mahanagar Gas Limited
ClearMedi Healthcare
Indraprastha Gas Limited
Labour and employment Tier 3
Ongoing instructions for Phoenix Legal’s labour and employment practice include compensation package structuring, collective bargaining negotiations (for the extensive manufacturing client base), employee contract reviews, workforce reorganisations and M&A-related due diligence. A long list of IT clients retains the team for advice on retrenchments, executive-level remuneration and trade union negotiations. The partnership comprises practice heads Manjula Chawla, Saket Shukla, Abhishek Saxena and Sawant Singh.
Practice head(s):
Key clients
Equentia Natural Resources Pte. Ltd. and Equentia SCF Technologies Private Limited
Dell Inc.
Groupon Inc.
Zorg Industries (Hong Kong) Limited
Dynavax Corporation
ASTA Energy Transmission Components GmbH
ClearMedi Healthcare
Ciena Corporation
Linamar
Catholic Relief Services
Restructuring and insolvency Tier 3
Phoenix Legal is well equipped to assist a range of stakeholders in insolvency proceedings, such as creditors, insolvency professionals and corporate debtors. Its portfolio is further populated by mandates concerning the winding up of companies and voluntary liquidations, as well as distressed M&A. Sawant Singh has significant experience in matters pertaining to asset reconstruction, corporate and debt restructuring. Sriram Ramachandran, whose specialisms include complex M&A and private equity deals, is another noteworthy member. Former co-head Jyoti Singh left the team to establish her own boutique law firm.
Practice head(s):
Key clients
Shailen Shah
Vijaykumar V. Iyer
Group Veritas
Nissan Motors
Tax Tier 3
Tax advisory and cross-border restructuring matters at Phoenix Legal are handled by co-head Abhishek Saxena on the direct side and co-head Pranav Srivastava on the direct side. The team was recently engaged by Indian subsidiaries to advise on transfer pricing, triangular trade agreements, import-export transactions, permanent establishment issues and general M&A activity. Co-heads Manjula Chawla and Saket Shukla add strength to transactional matters. sectors of focus include insurance, financial services, IT, healthcare and the heavy industries.
Practice head(s):
Key clients
Sam’s Club (subsidiary of Walmart)
Linamar Corporation
Ciena Corporation
Intuitive Surgical Inc.
Albright Stonebridge Group
Intrexon Corporation/Trans Ova Genetics LC
Sportradar AG
Dufry AG
Volaris Group
Rokit World Limited
TMT Tier 3
Phoenix Legal advises technology, media and entertainment clients in relation to their regulatory and transactional needs, including software development, investment, acquisitions and licensing. Manjula Chawla has significant expertise in corporate transactions and corporate governance, competition law, employment and data protection mandates. Saket Shukla is a go-to partner for clients engaged in M&A, PE exits, restructuring and joint ventures.
Practice head(s):
Key clients
Dell Inc.
ARG Outlier Media (Republic TV)
Newslaundry
Ciena Corporation
Volaris Group
Reliance ADAG Group
AMPME, Inc.
Rokit World Limited
Alepo Technologies Private Limited
Newsclick
Real estate and construction Tier 4
Indian and international corporates, real estate funds and developers seek Phoenix Legal's support in an array of real estate matters. Mandates range from foreign direct investment to acquisition and lease of immovable property, construction and engineering contracts as well as project development. Siddharth Hariani is a key individual in the team, which often offers advice in relation to compliance and regulatory issues under RERA.
Practice head(s):
Key clients
HDFC Capital Advisors Limited
Cooper Standard India Pvt. Ltd
Phoenix Legal > Firm Profile
The firm: Phoenix Legal was founded in 2008 by Ms. Manjula Chawla, Mr. Saket Shukla, Mr. Abhishek Saxena, and Mr. Sawant Singh. It is a full-service Indian law firm offering transactional, regulatory, advisory, dispute resolution, and tax services. It advises a diverse clientele, including domestic and international companies, banks and financial institutions, funds, promoter groups, and public sector undertakings. It now has 13 partners and 65 lawyers at its two offices (New Delhi and Mumbai) making it one of the leading law firms of the country.
It is committed to developing strong client relationships, engaging capable and dedicated professionals, and investing in technology. Enthusiasm, energy, and a drive for excellence influence the way the firm works. It invests time in understanding clients’ businesses, which enables it to provide commercially oriented and innovative legal solutions to achieve clients’ goals.
It believes that its lawyers are its greatest resource and its philosophy is to attract and retain quality professionals. It encourages entrepreneurship to enable its people to fully realize their potential. Its belief is that clients will benefit from the success of its people.
A few characteristics which set it apart from a conventional firm are a high degree of partner involvement and availability; top-quality commercially-oriented legal advice; attention to detail; and responsiveness.
Areas of practice: The firm is a full-service Indian law firm offering transactional, regulatory, advisory, dispute resolution, and tax services and has regularly acted on some of the most complex and cutting-edge work in different practice areas. Many of the firm’s deals and transactions have made headlines. The firm has acted on transactions with a value in excess of $1bn nearly every year of its existence. Even the deals and transactions that are not high-value, and therefore may not make headlines, involve complex and innovative structuring and regulatory issues. The firm has significant experience in advising its clients on deals and transactions in heavily regulated sectors, such as insurance, financial services, mining, pharmaceutical, multi-brand retail, infrastructure, and natural resources.
The firm’s clients include some of the largest and well known global corporations including Fortune 100 companies. Apart from the above factors, the firm believes its approach to client service to be superior to its peer firms and makes it stand out and justifies its better ranking. Partners at the firm have substantial or complete involvement in any client work that is undertaken by the firm. Additionally, it is aggressively responsive and always available to clients, provides commercial advice in a language that the client can understand and provides advice that is legally enforceable but without the legalese.
The solutions that we provide to our clients to help them achieve their business objectives have their basis in intense and detailed legal research. While we do keep abreast of market practices applicable to legal interpretation, they are adopted and recommended only if they are supported by a prevailing legal and regulatory framework.
In a sense, we don’t fully believe in a precedent-based approach. While we have a database and do pass the benefit of our experience to our clients, we do tend to tailor our advice to meet our clients’ requirements and do not believe in offering templatized solutions.
Towards this end, we continue to grow our team of qualified professionals with experience in diverse areas of law and the capability to provide fully integrated services to support all our client’s legal needs.
Main Contacts
| Department | Name | Telephone | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ms. Manjula Chawla | manjula.chawla@phoenixlegal.in | +911149830000 | |
| Mr. Saket Shukla | saket.shukla@phoenixlegal.in | +911149830000 | |
| Mr. Abhishek Saxena | abhishek.saxena@phoenixlegal.in | +911149830000 | |
| Mr. Sawant Singh | sawant.singh@phoenixlegal.in | +912243408500 |
Lawyer Profiles
| Photo | Name | Position | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|
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Mr Aditya Bhargava | Aditya is a partner based in the Mumbai Office of the Firm… | View Profile |
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Ms Manjula Chawla | Manjula is the co-founding partner of Phoenix Legal and concentrates in the… | View Profile |
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Ms Ritika Ganju | Ritika is a partner based in the New Delhi office of the… | View Profile |
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Mr Siddharth Hariani | Siddharth, a partner based in the Mumbai office, focusses on the firm’s… | View Profile |
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Mr Vasanth Rajasekaran | Vasanth is a partner based in the Delhi office of Phoenix Legal.… | View Profile |
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Mr Sriram Ramachandran | Sriram Ramachandran is a partner in the Mumbai office of Phoenix Legal.… | View Profile |
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Mr Abhishek Saxena | Abhishek Saxena is a co-founding partner based out of New Delhi office… | View Profile |
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Mr Saket Shukla | Saket Shukla’s practice specialises in M&A, JVs, private equity and complex corporate… | View Profile |
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Mr Sawant Singh | Sawant Singh is a co-founding partner based in the Mumbai office. His… | View Profile |
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Mr Trinath Tadakamalla | Pranav is a partner based in the New Delhi office of the… | View Profile |
Staff Figures
Number of lawyers : 65 at this office : 40Languages
English Hindi TamilDiversity/Community
Introduction to Diversity Policies of the firm:
- Brief description: Gender Diversity Policy: The Firm is committed to enhance its performance by recognising and utilising the contribution of diverse skills and talent from its workforce. The Firm defines diversity as recognising and valuing the unique contributions made by people because of their diverse skillset, distinctive background, experiences and outlooks. Diversity may result from a range of factors including but not limited to- age, gender, ethnicity, cultural background or other personal factors.
- Work Life Balance: Maintaining an effective orientation program and mentoring practices for all new lawyers, managers and administrators;
- Anti-Harassment Policy: The firm desire to promote a healthy and congenial working environment irrespective of gender, caste and creed, social status or class of the members of the firm. Therefore, the firm has zero-tolerance for sexual harassment and any act of harassment will invite serious disciplinary action. It is essential that each member deals with their colleagues and third parties with complete fairness and respect and realizes that his/her behavior will be attributed to the firm and can affect its inward and outward reputation. A substantive part of the Anti-Harassment Policy is our prevention of sexual Harassment Policy, which has been formed to prohibit, prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment at workplace and to provide the procedure for the redressal of complaints pertaining to sexual harassment.
The session will be intended to sensitize new members about the diversity, stress on work- life balance and intolerance to harassment within the firm. This initiative has been proposed with an objective to generate confidence among the new members about the support and positive environment that the firm assures its members. The sessions are proposed to be a platform for interaction, where the firm would be happy to share its experience to address the concerns of its new members, if any.
Notable Cases
Client name: Federation of Indian Airlines (comprising (1) Interglobe Aviation Limited (2) Jet Airways (India) Limited (3) Go Airlines Limited (4) Spicejet Limited)
Description: The case involves multiple commercial entities challenging an order for conversion of all vehicles at the Delhi airport to run on CNG. The Firm regularly handles disputes for large corporates over commercial matters before various courts.
The Firm instrumental in driving litigation strategy where large number of stakeholders are commercially affected by directions passed by Government authorities. The Firm achieved success in the matter through an unconventional strategy of approaching the Supreme Court rather than seeking a review before the National Green Tribunal. The strategy was formulated keeping in view the firms experiences and knowledge base regarding the functioning of the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court.
The Firm secured an interim stay on the National Green Tribunals direction for conversion of all vehicles and equipment at the IGI airport to CNG. The Firm also secured permission to file an appeal against that direction, when the clients were not parties to the underlying proceedings before the National Green Tribunal. All client airlines can continue to run their vehicles on their usual fuel and operations at the IGI Airport will not be hampered.
Client name: Federation of Indian Airlines
Description: The firm is representing the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) (comprised of leading air carriers in India IndiGo, Spicejet, Jet Airways and Go Air) in its intervention in a disposed of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and consequent reconsideration of an Order passed by the Delhi High Court in that PIL which prohibited exemptions, extensions or variations of Flight Duty Time Limitations of pilots in India. The Federation of Indian Airlines (or any of its member airlines). Due to the prohibition, rigid adherence to flight duty time limitations was causing industry-wide problems in exigent circumstances such as inclement weather and runway closure. The firm was instrumental in securing FIAs intervention, a reconsideration of the prohibition (which is pending) and pendente lite relief of carving out exceptions to the prohibition.
Client Testimonials
CLIENT: SHALINI SAXENA
COMPANY/FIRM: PINE LABS
TESTIMONIAL: We have worked with Phoenix for the last couple of years on investment into the company deals and have been very satisfied with the level of expertise and attention provided. The team assigned have maintained utmost professionalism and focused on resolving issues to the interest of all and overall deal. They have all been very insightful and an expert in their field. Truly professional and marvellous individuals.
My experience with the firm was excellent and a large part of it is due to Saket who is someone I go back a long way in the past. Saket has always given us all the time and attention that was needed to be successful in these kinds of deal. He was a calming and confident presence. I very much appreciate the knowledge and support I received from Phoenix.
CLIENT: Marine Legal Bureau
COMPANY/FIRM: Phoenix Legal, India, Mumbai
TESTIMONIAL: We work in the field of maritime law.
Before I met Mr Gautam Bhatikar (Partner of Messrs Phoenix Legal), our company worked with another law firm from India. Often we were not satisfied with speed, quality of services.
But thanks to destiny, I met Gautam and we started to work together in Indian cases – ships arrest cases and huge court cases in the court of Calcutta. These cases need a lot of human resources and professional knowledge.
And I have seen absolutely another result – professional team, professional management by Mr Bhatikar, professional actions with opponents and in the courts, prompt reaction to all our needs and requests.
Best regards,
Edward Kuznetsov
Marine Legal Bureau CEO
CLIENT: Sanctum Wealth Management Private Limited
COMPANY/FIRM: Phoenix Legal, India
TESTIMONIAL:Phoenix legal have been providing legal services to Sanctum Wealth for several years, mainly around support for fundraising and regulatory matters. In our dealings with various professionals at Phoenix over the years, including Sawant Singh, Sriram Ramachandran, and Aditya Bhargava, the standout elements have been the thoroughness of the work, the team’s willingness to go the extra mile, and the attention of senior partners. Further, it always feels like they are acting in our best interests even when the commercial implications might be unfavourable for them. With Phoenix, there is a feeling of genuine partnership.
CLIENT: Mr. Haruhiro Yoshizawa/ Sojitz Corporation (HQ in Japan)
COMPANY/FIRM: Sawant Singh/Partner | Phoenix Legal
TESTIMONIAL: Truly Professional, Efficient, and so Personable. Having Sawant Singh, Phoenix legal in our team brought us amazing outcome. He was a calming and confident presence during very difficult negotiations. Thanks to his expertise and the help of the firm, we were able to concluded successful deals in India far away from our city in Japan. I would definitely recommend him and the firm.