Dentons Rodyk offer an extensive range of domestic and cross-border advice to founders, investors, start-ups and emerging growth companies. The team assists clients from the life-cycle of companies and incorporation of entities, to investment/ subscription agreements, shareholders’ agreements and ancillary agreements and eventually leading exits via IPO or trade sale. The team is also well known for its specialised ESG expertise, as well as carbon emissions and carbon trading advice for relevant industries. Sunil Rai co-heads the practice focusing on outbound and inbound India-related transactions while Ray Chiang’s main areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and venture technology. S Sivanesan assists on venture capital, venture technology and investment funds.
Legal 500 Editorial commentary
Profile
Work Department
Corporate, M&A, Venture Capital, Private Equity
Position
Sunil Rai is a senior partner in Dentons Rodyk’s Corporate practice group. He is co-head of the Venture Tech & Emerging Growth Companies practice group. He is also co-head of the India practice group which works on outbound and inbound India-related transactions .
Sunil concentrates his practice in corporate and transactional matters encompassing investments and exits (buyouts, trade sales), domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures, licensing, corporate governance, restructuring of entities, employment law matters including formulating stock option/ share award schemes (ESOP/ ESAS), establishing new businesses and assisting clients in drafting and reviewing contracts across a broad spectrum of various industries, verticals and government sectors. Sunil is particularly experienced in complex investment and venture-backed transactions involving multiple parties, various shareholders and parties across several jurisdictions. He enjoys acting for institutional investors (family offices, venture capital funds and private equity investors) making investments and divestments and start-ups/ early stage entities receiving investments at all stages of a company’s life-cycle - from seed stage to advanced stages such as Series D and beyond.
Sunil has a strong interest in investment-related work (involving venture capital and private equity), building up the Israel, Middle East and India - Singapore deal corridor and also enthusiastically assisting in the growth of various SMEs, start-ups and private funds through establishing new ventures, handling legal issues, fund-raising, managing of investments and value creation.
Sunil has given several presentations and written articles on business structures, investment term sheets, essentials of contracts, corporate fraud, mergers regime under Competition Act of Singapore, Personal Data Protection Act and amendments to Companies Act of Singapore and the Variable Capital Company regime. He has also been actively involved in pro bono activities for several years including being a grassroots leader and also an active mediator with Community Mediation Centre and Consumer Association of Singapore and mentoring startups at Singapore University of Social Sciences. Sunil also volunteered as a judge at the International Mediation Competitions organised by SIMI in 2019 and 2020.
Career
Senior Partner - Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP (formerly Rodyk & Davidson LLP) (2022 - present)
Partner - Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP (formerly Rodyk & Davidson LLP) (2005 - 2021)
Memberships
Member, Law Society of Singapore
Member, Singapore Academy of Law
Education
University of Manchester, 2014, MBA, (Global)
2005, Postgraduate Study, Practice Law Course (in Top 10% of cohort)
National University of Singapore, 2005, LLB, (2nd Class Hons, Upper Division)
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The team is distinctly founder-centric: practical onboarding checklists, plain-English explainers for term-sheet economics and dilution, step-by-step closing calendars, and disciplined version control. On our recent mandates, they protected essentials, preserved founder rapport, and closed at pace.' 'Ray Chiang stands out for availability, founder handholding, and commercial pragmatism. He is present when it matters—responding quickly, framing options with clear consequences, and guiding first-time founders through cap-table math, preferences, consent rights, and board mechanics without grandstanding.' 'Commercially-minded, responsive and always ready to offer well-thought-out solutions.' 'Client-focused and result-oriented and provides valuable experience in this space.'