Firm Profile > Phoenix Legal > New Delhi, India

Banking and finance Tier 2

Phoenix Legal’s 'approachable and knowledgeable' team is active in a number of refinancing mandates on the side of lenders and demonstrates a strong focus on debt issuances in the infrastructure space. Practice head Sawant Singh acts for a number of banks and financial institutions, advising them on asset reconstruction, project finance and debt restructuring. In a recent instruction, Singh advised Sojitz Corporation on its $156m loan to Archean Chemical Industries, in the form of equity and debt, for refinancing purposes.

Corporate and M&A Tier 2

Acting for domestic and international companies, Phoenix Legal has experience advising clients on joint ventures, inbound and outbound investment, corporate and commercial contracts, debt restructuring and structuring matters in sectors such as energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, oil and gas, roads, mining and ports. Abhishek Saxena is a very active member of the group, bringing particular expertise in relation to joint ventures and shareholding acquisitions, including advising clients on buybacks of shares, transaction structuring and due diligence. Pranav Srivastava stands out for his ability to act for clients in domestic and cross-border transactions and represent them in commercial arbitrations.

Dispute resolution Tier 2

Phoenix Legal’s 'resourceful' litigation practice has strength in complex competition law and economic crime mandates, including those concerning alleged cartel activity, in addition to a track record of handling corporate, civil and white-collar crime matters throughout India’s court circuit and notable expertise in debt recovery matters. The 'brilliant' Mrinal Ojha handles commercial disputes in a diverse range of sectors in India’s high courts and the Supreme Court, and has additional expertise in insurance disputes. Recently, he successfully represented a federation of 4 Indian airlines in a challenge to the order for the conversion of all vehicles at Delhi airport to run on compressed natural gas fuel.

Projects and energy Tier 2

Project financing, development work, regulatory advisory, corporate transactional matters and project-related disputes are all typical instructions for the team at Phoenix Legal. The practice advises on the legal aspects of the entire supply chain of crude refined products, gas and LNG, power generation (from wind, hydro, biomass to solar projects), as well as power transmission and distribution. Abhishek Saxena focuses on cross-border deals and projects in diverse sectors including IT, industrial, manufacturing, hospitality and aviation; while Sawant Singh is experienced in project finance. Pranav Srivastava acts for clients in transactions and high-value commercial disputes in relation to infrastructure projects.

Restructuring and insolvency Tier 2

Phoenix Legal advises on corporate restructuring and business reorganisation, namely demergers, amalgamations, and schemes of arrangement with creditors and stakeholders. Other areas of expertise include providing support in relation to voluntary liquidation and dissolution of companies. The practice is also instructed by insolvency professionals, financial and operational creditors, and corporate debtors in IBC proceedings. Jyoti Singh has over a decade of experience in insolvency, recovery and enforcement proceedings; another key practitioner is Abhishek Saxena, who focuses on cross-border deals.

Antitrust and competition Tier 3

Phoenix Legal ’s antitrust and competition offering provides merger control advise to corporate clients for M&A transactions, joint ventures, distribution and supply arrangements and asset-purchase transactions.

Insurance Tier 3

Phoenix Legal’s commercial and dispute resolution lawyers enjoy a healthy flow of insurance-related disputes for domestic and international insurers and reinsurers. Core instructions include a mix of coverage disputes and litigation surrounding insurance claims, with cited sectors of expertise including pharmaceuticals, auto, IT and financial services. The team also provides advice on India-specific insurance regulation for clients entering the market.

Labour and employment Tier 3

The labour and employment practice at Phoenix Legal offers advisory services pertaining to policy audits, restructuring, internal investigations, regulatory compliance and the drafting and reviewing of employment contracts. The firm's corporate lawyers — including Manjula Chawla and Saket Shukla — advise on retrenchment exercises and other resultant employment issues arising from M&A transactions. Assistance with responding to misconduct allegations is also provided.

TMT Tier 3

Phoenix Legal is particularly active in the fields of media and entertainment, for which the team handles film investment ventures, broadcast licensing, contract negotiations, operational contracts and other agreements. The team applies its strong knowledge of telecoms regulations to significant cross-border transactions in the sector as well as facilitating SaaS agreements for a number of conglomerate clients. Software brands are also prominently featured on the client roster.

Real estate and construction Tier 4

Phoenix Legal advises various participants in the real estate sector on foreign direct investment, conveyance deeds, and the registration of documents, as well as construction and engineering contracts. The firm is regularly involved in the structuring and negotiating of lease deeds, and is also adept at advising on real estate financing, developments and related contentious matters. Siddharth Hariani, who is based in the Mumbai office, is experienced in foreign direct investment in the real estate sector, as well as acquisitions and property development.

Tax Tier 4

Direct tax matters at Phoenix Legal are handled by Abhishek Saxena, whose experience involves tax efficient transaction structuring (including joint ventures and M&A), foreign investment and Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement compliance. Pranav Srivastava leads on indirect matters and also brings his tax expertise to commercial disputes.

Diversity/Community

Introduction to Diversity Policies of the firm:

1. 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.
2. Work Life Balance: Maintaining an effective orientation program and mentoring practices for all new lawyers, managers and administrators;
3. 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 firm’s 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 Tribunal’s 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 FIA’s intervention, a reconsideration of the prohibition (which is pending) and pendente lite relief of carving out exceptions to the prohibition.”