Spice Route Legal

Founding Partners: Praveen Raju, Mathew Chacko

Offices: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Kochi

Number of Lawyers: 80

Languages: English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, Gujarati

Firm Overview:

Spice Route Legal is a full-service law firm focusing on: (i) Technology, Media and Telecommunications; (ii) Lifesciences, Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare; and (iii) Sustainable and Alternative Energy. The firm provides exceptional levels of legally astute and commercial advice to participants in international trade and commerce and brings a unique approach to the table, designed to offer the best solution for legal and business challenges that its clients face across the world.

Practice Areas:

■ Corporate & M&A

■ Private Equity & Venture Capital

■ Data Protection, Privacy & Cybersecurity

■ Financial Sector Regulatory

■ Intellectual Property

■ Litigation, Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

■ Banking and Finance

Sector Focus

■ Technology, Media & Telecommunications

■ Lifesciences, Pharmaceuticals & Healthcare

■ Energy, Sustainability & Alternate Energy

Main Areas of Practice:

Corporate & M&A:

Partners: 2; Lawyers: 30

The firm advises on a full spectrum of corporate transactions in today’s increasingly global marketplace. In addition to mainstream M&A, the firm has been involved in some of the most challenging private equity, venture capital, take privates, spin-offs and corporate restructurings that involve India. Today, Spice Route Legal is the "go to" firm for Indian companies with global M&A or investment ambitions and for non-Indian companies investing in India.

Key Contact: Praveen Raju

Email: [email protected]

Private Equity & Venture Capital:

Partners: 2; Lawyers: 30

The firm’s private equity and venture capital practice is widely applauded for its cutting edge, cross-jurisdictional work involving investments in technology, fintech, big data, energy and healthcare. The firm has a 360-degree approach to fund structuring - advising PE funds on investments, deal structuring, tax, regulatory approvals, IPOs and distressed acquisitions, and has advised some of the most prolific investors in the region.

Key Contact: Praveen Raju

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Mathew Chacko

Email: [email protected]

Data Protection, Privacy & Cybersecurity

Partners: 1; Lawyers: 15

The firm prides itself on having one of the largest and most sophisticated Data Protection, Privacy and cybersecurity practice in Asia. The team combines strong technical and legal credentials, an appreciation of the global nature of data and a network of the best technology, data and information lawyers in the world, to advise on increasingly global data, privacy and cybersecurity mandates. The firm regularly advises on international data flows, cybersecurity and data risk, use of artificial intelligence, privacy concerns, disputes involving data, incident reporting, localisation strategies, employment and health data issues and structuring whistleblowing hotlines and ethics investigations.

Key Contact: Mathew Chacko

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Aadya Misra

Email: [email protected]

Financial Sector Regulatory:

Partners: 1, Lawyers: 18

Spice Route Legal regularly advises and assists most of the prominent names in the financial services sector in India. With the ability to structure products, identify and mitigate technology, intellectual property, data and financial sector regulatory risks, the team straddles multiple practice areas to seamlessly advise banks, financial institutions, startups, credit rating agencies, investors and ‘brick & mortar’ companies.

Key Contact: Mathew Chacko

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Ankita Hariramani

Email: [email protected]

Intellectual Property:

Partners: 1; Lawyers: 9

Spice Route Legal’s expertise in advising on complex questions of IP is widely recognised, having advised on some of the most contentious disputes and assisted on some of the most complex transactions that involve intellectual property. In 2022, the firm has been at the forefront of the evolving contributory infringement jurisprudence in India, of the recognition of the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel, of some of the largest IP disposals and of defending multiple actions by patent trolls. The firm’s uniquely integrated IP team offers corporations the ability to rely on it for advice on the protection, monetisation, licensing and sale of IP and for disputes involving IP.

Key Contact: Mathew Chacko

Email: [email protected]

Technology, Media & Telecommunications:

Partners: 1; Lawyers: 40

Spice Route Legal has established itself as India’s largest and most sophisticated TMT practice. With the deepest pool of experts in the region, the practice is hyperspecialised with a few market-leading TMT generalists and many other lawyers focussing exclusively on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Licensing, Ad-Tech, HR-Tech, Aviation Tech, E-commerce, Digital Media, SAAS, Ed-tech, Digital Media, Gaming, Sports, Social Media, Telecommunications, Cleantech and Proptech.

Key Contact: Mathew Chacko

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Aadya Misra

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Ankita Hariramani

Email: [email protected]

Energy, Renewables & Sustainability:

Partners: 1; Lawyers: 13

Since its formation, Spice Route Legal has been a trusted advisor to energy clients. The firm's practice focuses on the future of energy, i.e. new and alternate sources of energy. The firm has worked with multiple companies within the clean and renewable energy space and is well regarded as a market leader in alternative energy, renewables and sustainability.

In addition to complex restructuring and investment advisory for its Energy clients, the firm has also assisted clients with several project development and project finance mandates, in the solar, wind, and hydrogen fuel technology sub-sectors. A recent specialisation and interest in electric mobility mandates has broadened the firm's expertise within the energy space to include this most exciting and nascent sector, as well.

Key Contact: Praveen Raju

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Janhavi Joshi

Email: [email protected]

Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals & Lifesciences:

Partners: 2; Lawyers: 12

As a hyper-industry-focused firm that combines the M&A, Regulatory, Data and IP expertise of its founders, Lifesciences is a natural sector specialisation. Over the last few years, the practice has grown exponentially into a 360-degree Life Sciences and Health-tech-focused practice, encompassing a range of practice areas including Corporate/M&A, Regulatory, IP, Commercial Agreements, and Data practices.

The firm's portfolio of clients boasts of companies and their investors across the life sciences industry, including in the pharmaceuticals, biotech, veterinary, diagnostics, medical devices, and health-tech sectors. The practice comprises of a team of 5 lawyers primarily focusing on the Corporate M&A and PE-VC transactions in the Life Sciences space and a team of 6 lawyers who focus on Regulatory, Data, Technology, IP and Commercial Contracts.

Key Contact: Praveen Raju

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Renuka Abraham

Email: [email protected]

Key Contact: Aadya Misra

Email: [email protected]

International Work:

Spice Route Legal’s proprietary border-agnostic model of providing seamless solutions for cross-border legal issues by relying on a wide network of friends is acknowledged as a market first.

Relying on this network, the firm has:

■ Advised the largest global life sciences company on setting up a “one-of-a-kind” agri-tech platform, in collaboration with one the largest financial services company in the world.

■ Advised a US-based pioneer green hydrogen company on potentially the largest investment into the green hydrogen sector.

■ Assisted a German investment fund focused on the Industrials, Chemicals and Logistics sector invest in companies in 10 countries in Asia.

■ Assisted a leading Indian mobility player in assessing a 23-country regulatory, technology and risk analysis.

■ Advised 45 multinational corporations on the impact of Schrems II and the resultant guidance on data transfers to India.

■ Led investment transactions in over 100 jurisdictions amounting to well over USD 2.5 billion.