Cross-Border Advisory
Cross-border legal advisory across investment structuring, dispute resolution, and contractual frameworks engaging Indian and foreign law concurrently.
Cross-border work in India sits at the intersection of FEMA, FDI, treaty, and supervisory law. A foreign investor coming into India faces a regulatory layer that did not exist in this depth a decade ago. An Indian counterparty to a cross-border contract faces enforceability questions that the parties rarely document well. The firm conducts the Indian-law portion of multi-jurisdictional matters and coordinates with foreign co-counsel where the matter requires both grasps simultaneously.
What the firm does in this practice
Inbound investment structuring — FDI and FEMA
FDI structuring under the consolidated FDI Policy, FEMA filings, automatic-route vs. government-route advisory, sectoral cap analysis, pricing-guideline compliance, and the holding-structure decisions that determine repatriation and exit.
Cross-border M&A
Acquirer-side and target-side advisory on cross-border deals, regulatory clearance under the FDI Policy and Competition Act, transaction tax structuring, and the closing-conditions architecture that aligns Indian and foreign closing mechanics.
Bilateral investment treaties and treaty disputes
Treaty advisory under India’s BIT framework, treaty-based investment claims, the Indian model BIT, and coordination with international counsel on UNCITRAL or ICSID-style claims where the matter arises.
Foreign award enforcement
Enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in India under Part II of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The New York Convention and Geneva Convention frameworks, including the limited public-policy and arbitrability defences and the post-Vijay Karia trajectory.
Foreign court judgment enforcement
Section 13 and Section 44A enforcement of foreign court judgments in India, the reciprocating-territory framework, and the substantive defences that survive Indian execution proceedings.
Indian-law support to foreign-seated arbitrations
Section 9 reliefs in support of foreign-seated arbitrations (preserved by the 2015 amendment), enforcement assistance, and coordination with the seat-tribunal on India-specific procedural questions.
India-counsel coordination for offshore litigation
Indian-law opinions, discovery support, expert affidavits, and procedural coordination where Indian-law issues are litigated abroad in foreign courts or international arbitral tribunals.
The view from the firm
The single most consequential drafting decision in a cross-border commercial contract is the seat. Not the venue. Not the governing law. The seat — because the seat determines the supervisory court, the standard of review, and the enforceability path. Singapore, London, Dubai, and Mumbai are not interchangeable. Indian counterparties who agree to a seat without thinking about it inherit a procedural framework that will decide their dispute years later.
FEMA and FDI compliance is not paperwork; it is precondition. A pricing-guideline error on a Form FC-GPR is not a clerical issue. A sectoral-cap miscalculation on an inbound investment is not a footnote. These are the matters that surface, fully formed, two years later, when the investor wants to repatriate or exit. The firm’s cross-border practice frontloads the work that other practices defer.
Coordination with foreign co-counsel is its own discipline. The firm operates as Indian counsel to the international team, not as a translator. The Indian-law portion of a multi-jurisdictional matter has its own architecture, its own time pressures, and its own forums — and the firm conducts that portion with full ownership, while remaining transparent to the rest of the team.
Deeper references
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