IEL Elite
Overview
Mumbai-based Vikram Shroff and Ajay Singh Solanki lead Nishith Desai Associates’ employment and labour team, which is widely recognised as a market leader in India.
The team is able to leverage the knowledge and expertise of colleagues within the firm’s multiple offices across the country – Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore – as well as its international outposts in New York, Palo Alto, Singapore, and Munich.
Clients also benefit from the firm’s investment in a state-of-the-art research campus, Imaginarium AliGunjan.
Specialisms
The department is well placed to assist companies with emerging workforce challenges, and offers particular experience in the TMT and life sciences sectors. As part of this, the group is adept at assisting with the employment law ramifications of advanced technology.
A particularly standout area for the group is its regular instruction on the local employment law aspects of headline multi-jurisdictional acquisitions, including support with employee transfers and post-merger integration. For example, the team acted for Apollo Global Management on the employment law issues related to its acquisition of Amex Global Business Travel for $5.3bn in December 2021.
The team’s experience in the life sciences industry and its capabilities in major cross-border transactions was also showcased in its advice to ICU Medical acquisition of medical devices and vital care products company Smiths Medical from Smiths Group for $2.3bn.
The group also acts on contentious issues. This expertise spans workplace investigations – including those into allegations of fraud – and support in litigation.
Other areas of prowess include data protection and privacy, downsizing operations, outsourcing, and in-house HR policies. In addition, the team is also able to support with employee benefits – including stock options and restricted share unit plans – as well as restrictive covenants.
Clients
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Profile provided by Nishith Desai Associates
Nishith Desai Associates has earned the reputation of being Asia’s most Innovative Law Firm - and the go-to specialists for companies around the world, looking to conduct businesses in India and for Indian companies considering business expansion abroad.
We are a research and strategy driven international firm with offices in Mumbai, Palo Alto (Silicon Valley), Bangalore, Singapore, New Delhi, Munich, and New York. Our team comprises of specialists who provide strategic advice on legal, regulatory, and tax related matters in an integrated manner basis key insights carefully culled from the allied industries. The firm profile can be accessed here.
As a firm of doyens, we pride ourselves in working with select clients within select verticals on complex matters. Our forte lies in providing innovative and strategic advice in futuristic areas of law such as those relating to Blockchain and virtual currencies, Internet of Things (IOT), Aviation, Artificial Intelligence, Privatization of Outer Space, Drones, Robotics, Virtual Reality, Ed-Tech, Med-Tech & Medical Devices and Nanotechnology with our key clientele comprising of marquee Fortune 500 corporations.
The firm has been consistently ranked as one of the Most Innovative Law Firms, across the globe. In fact, NDA has been the proud recipient of the Financial Times – RSG award 4 times in a row, (2014-2017) as the Most Innovative Indian Law Firm.
We are a trust based, non-hierarchical, democratic organization that leverages research and knowledge to deliver extraordinary value to our clients. Datum, our unique employer proposition has been developed into a global case study, aptly titled ‘Management by Trust in a Democratic Enterprise,’ published by John Wiley & Sons, USA.
The firm has conceptualized and created a state-of-the-art Blue Sky Thinking and Research Campus, Imaginarium Aligunjan, an international institution dedicated to designing a premeditated future with an embedded strategic foresight capability. More information here.
HR Law Team
The HR Law team advises a large number of multinational clients in the area of employment and labour law. As a multi-skilled and research-based law firm, we are able to provide holistic advise to clients. Our team is known for the pragmatic advice we provide to clients.
Having witnessed the growth of new age industries and radical shifts in work culture and workforce management techniques, we have acquired expertise in addressing the challenges faced by organisations in coping with the plethora of employment and labour laws.
The HR Law team has been working with a large number of clients engaged in the IT, Outsourcing, BFSI, Telecom, Media, Pharma and Social Sector.
Key areas of expertise:
- Employment strategy and documentation including employment contract, non-compete and non-solicit agreements, IP assignment agreements and training bonds
- Applicability and compliance with employment and labour laws especially in light of advanced technology, changing work cultures and evolving work ethics
- Advisory and assistance in drafting and implementing employment policies and employee handbook
- Advise and implementation of the law on prevention of sexual harassment
- Structuring and documentation of employee stock options and restricted share unit plans
- Structuring of secondment arrangements and expatriate compensation
- Employee transfers in M&A and post-merger integration
- Employment termination, downsizing and reduction-in-force
- Labour law compliance and audits
- Employment litigation
- Employee fraud investigation
- Data Protection & Data Privacy
The team is supported by members from other practice areas as required for client projects. For example, when it comes to compensation structuring or structuring of ESOPs or secondment arrangements, the team works closely with colleagues from the firm’s tax team. Similar is the case for matters relating to data privacy and IP protection, where the team works with the firm’s IP team. Over the last couple of years, the team has also represented clients on employment litigation cases and employee investigation matters, working closely with the firm’s litigation group.
Recently, with the multi-faceted challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic and the revisioning of the workplace, several novel employment law issues were faced by clients. The team stood up to the challenge and worked tirelessly to deliver responses to the clients almost at the speed of thought.
Since the last several years, our HR Law team has been ranked as a Band 1 firm by Chambers & Partners, Tier 1 by Legal 500 Asia Pacific and adjudged “Outstanding’ by Asialaw.