Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Managing Partner: Cyril Shroff

Number of partners: 200

Number of lawyers: 1000

Languages: English, Hindi

Firm Overview:

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is India’s largest full-service law firm. It was founded in May 2015 and takes forward the legacy of the former 100-year old Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., whose experience and reputation made it one of the leading firms in the Indian legal market. The firm advises a large and varied client base that includes domestic and foreign commercial enterprises, family businesses, financial institutions, private equity funds, venture capital funds, start-ups and governmental and regulatory bodies.

Main Areas of Practice:

The firm’s Private Client practice goes back to the firm’s origins and has over 100+ years of experience in advising promoter families, high-net-worth individuals and entrepreneurs in relation to structuring and holding their wealth and family businesses in a governance and succession-friendly manner. The practice combines the firm’s in-depth knowledge of the Indian market and Indian promoters with its broad experience in many legal areas to provide private clients with expert and comprehensive advice on family succession, wealth management and governance issues.

The team, headed by Cyril Shroff comprises specialist lawyers with a deep knowledge and expertise in trust and estate law, family governance and corporate law. Cyril Shroff is a Tier 1 ranked lawyer by the prestigious Chambers and Partners HNW Guide for many years now and he is widely regarded as one of the leading lawyers in the country. Assisting Cyril Shroff are Rishabh Shroff, Radhika Gaggar, Kunal Savani and Shaishavi Kadakia.

Mr Rishabh Shroff (Partner) is one of India’s leading practitioners in the private client space and is globally acknowledged as a leading voice. He specialises in estate and succession planning, especially in family governance matters and the structuring of complex cross border trusts. He is also helping lead and build the firm’s Arts & Antiquities practice. Rishabh is Chair of prestigious FICCI Young Leaders Forum (Maharashtra Chapter). He was a Director and senior member of ‘STEP Estate Planning India Private Limited’, the Indian Chapter of the Society of Trust Estate Practitioners (STEP). He is a Trust & Estate Practitioner (TEP) in STEP. Rishabh continues to be ranked in the ALM’s Private Client Global Elite Directory 2021, the 4th consecutive year to do so. Since 2017 till date (including for 2021), Rishabh has been continually ranked as one of the top 200 specialist trusts and private client lawyers in the world, by the UK’s prestigious legal publication, Legal Week and the only lawyer from India. He was profiled and featured in a landmark publication on family business and the next generation of corporate India, ‘The Inheritors: Stories of Entrepreneurship and Success’. He is a prolific writer, and is the general editor of the firm’s widely respected publication, enTrusted.

Radhika Gaggar specialises in estate and succession planning (especially its crossborder aspects and interplay with the Indian exchange control regime, takeover regulations and personal laws), family settlements and constitutions and establishment of trusts. She has extensive experience in advising families, promoters of large corporate houses as well as professional wealth management and fiduciary service providers in relation to establishment and operation of trusts (both in India and overseas), restructuring of existing trust structures, establishment of private trust companies, rights and obligations of the fiduciaries and the beneficiaries. She has been instrumental in negotiating and implementing high-profile family settlements. She also advises on the establishment of charitable institutions.

In addition to the 5 partners in this practice, the team comprises 12 other full time attorneys, including a dedicated tax team, who have handled some of the most interesting and complex assignments in this space.

Being a full-service law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas provides end-to-end solutions with assistance from all practice areas. The firm also works with a number of national/international trust and estate lawyers and service providers to offer clients comprehensive and holistic services, onshore and offshore.

The firm’s Private Client experience includes:

■ Establishment of private family trusts (which may include private trustee companies, professional trustees and/or protectors) and advisory services for domestic and offshore trusts

■ Establishment and structuring of family offices and other investment/holding structures

■ Creation, implementation and monitoring of family governance structures, including drafting of family constitutions and vision statements

■ Advice on corporate governance and business structuring from the perspective of family governance

■ Estate and succession planning, including preparation of wills and codicils; providing probate and executorship services

■ Restructuring of existing promoter / family holdings in a tax-efficient and succession friendly manner

■ Advice on philanthropic and charitable endeavours, including establishment of public charitable trusts and advice on corporate social responsibility

■ Advice on family settlements and partitions

■ Family dispute resolution either through arbitration, mediation, and/or litigation

■ Conveyances and gifts of assets, including shares, movable and immoveable properties

■ Advice on art and antiquities

■ Direct taxation related advice (both domestic and international)

■ Risk management and regulatory advice including compliance with securities laws, takeover regulations, exchange control laws, liaison and dealing with regulators (especially R.B.I. and S.E.B.I.)

Key Clients:

GMR Group/Rao Family, Kotak Family, Adani Family, Sinha Family/ReNew Power.