Anhad Law

-Mr. Manishi Pathak, Managing Partner, Anhad Law

1. Please share an overview of your company's journey and business landscape in India

Anhad Law is a full-service Indian law firm. The Firm has a dedicated team of qualified lawyers who have rich experience of several decades and specialise in corporate and commercial laws relevant to business transactions including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and employment laws in India. The Firm also has a strong dispute resolution practice encompassing arbitration, civil and commercial litigation including white-collar crimes and employment. Anhad Law has a diverse workforce of lawyers and paralegals from various practices and different geographical locations.

The Firm has a robust Corporate & Commercial Practice which besides governance issues also has a strong focus on ESG and CSR aspects.

Anhad law has grown from a small team of 3 lawyers at the time of inception to 13 in a span of a little over 3 years.

We are a team of experienced lawyers where women representation has increased from 20% in the first year to 40% in the third year including in senior roles and has continued as such. We are making consistent efforts to increase the women participation in legal and / or support functions.

We have been assisting our clients in various other locations where Anhad Law does not have a physical office. We have represented and/or continue to represent clients in the following locations:

- Ahmedabad, State of Gujarat

- Kolkata and Haldia, State of West Bengal

- Noida, Lucknow and Allahabad, State of Uttar Pradesh

- Gurugram and Panipat, State of Haryana

- Kochi, State of Kerala

- Bangalore, State of Karnataka

- Hoshiarpur, State of Punjab

- Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur, State of Maharashtra

- UT of Puducherry

- UT of Chandigarh

- Chennai and other locations, State of Tamil Nadu

- Ahmedabad and Vapi, etc., State of Gujarat

- Jaipur, State of Rajasthan

- Vizag, State of Andhra Pradesh

- UTs of Jammu and Kashmir

Anhad Law has a dedicated labour and employment law team comprising of consistently top ranked Indian lawyers and senior members in L&E practice individually have an experience of more than 25 (twenty-five) years.

2. As a business leader, how do you see the emerging opportunities and potential growth areas for your company or sector in India?

Manishi Pathak, the Founder and Managing Partner of ANHAD LAW has over three decades of experience, his areas of practice include dispute resolution, labour and employment, corporate investigations, compliance audits, and investigations into non-compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws. He also provides advisory and transactional support on matters involving other corporate and commercial laws.

Chambers and Partners lists Manishi in Band 1 for Employment Law, recognizing him as a leading employment law specialist in India since 2013. Chambers and Partners ranked Manishi as a New Delhi-based recognized practitioner in Corporate/M&A for 2014 and 2015 and as "Top Ranked" for 2022 (Asia-Pacific). Chambers Global also recognized him in Corporate/M&A for 2014 and 2015. Asia Law Profiles 2022 ranked him as an "Elite Practitioner" for Labour & Employment Law in India. He has been listed in Who’s Who Legal of Indian practitioners in Labour & Employment law since 2009. Legal 500 has recognized him among India’s leading lawyers for several years, including 2021.

3. With an increasing emphasis on CSR, how do you integrate your CSR goals with your business strategy?

Anhad Law not only advices various multinationals on CSR but also incorporates:

Gender Diversity

We have implemented programmes and policies including prevention of sexual harassment policy to promote safe working environment for women.

Socio-economic mobility

While most law Firms tend to be specific in engaging lawyers on the basis of educational institutions and engage candidates from specific institutions only which may deprive other capable and deserving lawyers from getting a suitable exposure in a good law firm and career growth. Anhad Law has engaged and is open to engaging lawyers from other educational institutions irrespective of their socio-economic status and encourage participation of deserving professionals.

Our hiring process is transparent, and our conscious effort is to select candidates on merit basis without any bias towards any particular institution (s).

Social wellbeing

We understand that personal relationships such as marriage, divorce or separation are a part of everyone’s life, but we aim not to let any of these affect any individuals right to opportunity and growth in our firm.

We foster an environment where people from different age groups can work together in a comfortable and friendly manner. We encourage cohesive and collaborative efforts at workplace.

Mental wellbeing

We take pride in having a warm and friendly work culture at Anhad Law and it is our conscious effort to build an environment which protects mental wellbeing of our team. We discourage any interpersonal conflicts or any form of harassment or bullying at workplace.

We also encourage members of the Firm to have open communication and seek help to cope up with work demand since we believe that mental health issues could have an adverse impact on an individual besides affecting discharge of professional duties.

4. How has IFCCI and its business network added value to your operations in India?

AL: We have availed of opportunities to connect with network of French and Indian businesses, has enabled us to explore new markets and clients. Participation in network events has also helped us stay updated on the latest developments and trends, and enhance our understanding of Indo-French business and legal environments. We have conducted seminars and workshops through IFCCI's platforms, which has helped increasing our law firm's visibility and reach to existing and new clients through IFCCI's website, newsletters, and social media channels.