The advent of the corporate industry over the last few decades in India has been tremendous and accordingly, it has revamped the entire business eco-system. With a steady rise in the trajectory of corporate industry, multiple new avenues and verticals have witnessed a surge of growth – that marginally existed in the earlier decades. Corporate Legal practice is one such sector that has gained prominence over the last few years and has emerged as a matured vertical for the lawyers.
Ahlawat & Associates (A&A) is one such leading full-service law firms in India addressing issues related to Foreign Direct Investment, Joint Ventures, Corporate Compliance & Governance, Dispute Resolution as well as advisory support to the booming startup ecosystem. Delivering paramount legal and business solutions to countless domestic and global clients since 2011, A&A has successfully evolved as a matured player in the Indian legal industry. It has adopted an approach that demands the highest levels of knowledge, technical skill and service delivery that empowers A&A to provide accurate, reliable, timely, and cost-effective services to a plethora of industry groups and sectors.
Today, A&A takes prides for being amongst the most sought legal service providers that offers a comprehensive range of services including Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, Real Estate, Education, Intellectual Property, Employment, Labour, Commercial Litigation and much more.
A&A aims to innovate an even mix of highest global standards and local expertise while delivering high quality; practical, strategic legal solutions alongside helping clients to accomplish their goals. It is committed to revolutionizing the approach to legal service in a way that clients are not hesitant in seeking services at any stage.
The Founding Duo
Avnish Ahlawat – Founding Partner
Litigation & Dispute | Resolution Employment & Labour Law | Real Estate | Taxation
The journey of excellence commenced in 1976 when Mrs. Avnish Ahlawat started practicing and gained the status of being one of the most sought after litigators. Opining the legal profession as the noblest profession, Mrs. Ahlawat started her independent litigation practice in 1981 and had been leading various government departments to successful conclusions. With over forty years of experience in service, criminal and civil matters in the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court, the subordinate courts and service tribunals. She also has vast experience in arbitration dispute resolution work, including company/commercial. With her acumen, A&A has accomplished the unique ability to handle all dispute related matters within the firm and does not have to rely on outside counsels.
Uday Singh Ahlawat – Founding Partner
Corporate Commercial | Law Foreign Direct Investment | IT/ITES | Merger & Acquisition | Technology Transfer
Much later in 2011, her son Uday Singh Ahlawat – Founding Partner, joined her Mother and collaborated their expertize to deliver innovative services after analyzing the gaps in the legal sector. While both of them had their own respective areas of practice, the mother-son duo came from the same trail of thought that strongly believed in honesty, hard work, and been true to clients. Embracing these family values and work ethics in their profession to the core, they have managed to evolve amongst the most preferred firms in the legal domain.
Right from the beginning of his career, Uday was focused to acquire expertize in the area of corporate commercial legal services. Staying true to his area of expertise, i.e. mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructuring, private equity, and fund formations, he focuses on providing the best solutions and correct advice to his clients. His ability and acumen managing complex legal issues ensured the transition from an employee in a law firm to founding his own law firm was an obvious progression. Uday is a specialist in Foreign Direct Investment and has structured numerous India entry strategies for his clients.
“It is the discipline that the profession brings to your life and that is what motivates me. Every day there are professionals like us who are solving some or the other legal issues. Reducing the legal burden is what keeps me going” – asserts Uday.
Focus Areas – Pursuing an Agenda of Continuous Evolution
In its endeavor to contribute and build a stringent business eco-system, A&A focus is to assist the evolution of startups, early-stage companies, and investors. It plans to work along with all the phases of their growth process that includes incorporation, structuring, compliances, funding options, employee stock options, and much more!
By crafting efficient and cost-effective legal services for these segments, it encourages them to seek sound legal advice to avoid complex issues for them in the future. Since inception A&A has been aligned with startups from diverse fields – education, health, logistics, food, technology, and continues to strive to identify people and ideas that we can service towards their growth. Over the years, it has maintained this ideology that has resulted in winning the hearts of innovative thinkers, entrepreneurs and path breakers as clients. Along with understanding the nuances of large enterprises it has a highly-experienced team of Startup Lawyers. These lawyers advise and assist clients from setting up new businesses, raising funds as well as addressing roadblocks faced by new companies.
Alongside working with budding professionals, A&A extends its services across diverse industry segments. From extending assistance to aid investment, obtaining licenses and completing various registrations in the areas of HR & labour, infrastructure, tax, Insolvency and Bankruptcy intellectual property (trademark, copyright, patent) along with other support services.
USP – Exceptional Services and Innovative Practices
Understanding the fact that every client is unique and has different needs and concerns are one of the most distinctive features of A&A that cement their brand and help them to shine in the market. By adapting modern-business approaches and solutions, A&A aims to deliver premium-quality legal services, enhance client interaction and create a personalized approach to answer their legal issues. The fee structure is tailored to meet the client’s specific requirement and is highly customized that results in erasing financial burdens from the client that ultimately leads to winning countless hearts by the end of each assignment.
Having an insight into unexplored territories helped A&A to concentrate on the issues coming from specific geographical territories. This paved the path of extending its footprints out of the Indian sub-continent as it took a ubiquitous approach for regions such as the U.K, Japan and Korea. The firm has dedicated desks for these territories, which are led by experienced foreign resident specialist professionals. A&A is perhaps the only law firm in India to offer comprehensive solutions while eliminating even grassroots level difficulties faced by clients and have helped them seamlessly facilitate foreign direct investments and business setup in India.
The Next Year and Times Ahead
The firm strongly feels that India has evolved as one of the hottest investment destinations at the global platform. As the focus has shifted towards the inbound and outbound investments, A&A expects a rise to the practices relating to Foreign Direct Investment, India Entry Strategy and Mergers, and Acquisitions. Also the recent regulatory changes in the insolvency laws and the arbitration laws, the firm is witnessing a steady growth in these practices over the last year. A&A is optimistic that these trends will prevail for a long time and continue to grow in the next year.
Talking about the future prospects of A&A, the firm has set a positive foot forward to expand organically with more lawyers coming onboard and taking leadership roles within the firm. It also plans to setup three-four international desks that are in tune with the firm’s current growth trajectory.
