#telecom lawyer in mumbai

[lawfirm-elixir]

[newstfionline]

Thursday, May 20, 2021

For Migrant Children in Federal Care, a ‘Sense of Desperation’ (NYT) In a federal shelter in Dallas, migrant children sleep in a windowless convention center room under fluorescent lights that never go dark. At a military base in El Paso, teenagers pile onto bunk cots, and some say they have gone days without bathing. And in Erie, Pa., problems began emerging within days of the shelter’s creation: “Fire safety system is a big concern,” an internal report noted. Some of the hot water heaters were not working, and lice was “a big issue and seems to be increasing.” Early this year, children crossing the southwestern border in record numbers were crammed into Customs and Border Protection’s cold-floored, jail-like detention facilities. They slept side by side on mats with foil blankets, almost always far longer than the legal limit of 72 hours. Republicans declared it a crisis. Democrats and immigration groups denounced the conditions, which erupted into an international embarrassment for President Biden, who had campaigned on a return to compassion in the immigration system. The administration responded by rapidly setting up temporary, emergency shelters, including some that could house thousands of children. But the next potential crisis is coming into view. “I know the administration wants to take a victory lap for moving children out of Border Patrol stations—and they deserve credit for doing that,” said Leecia Welch, a lawyer and the senior director of the legal advocacy and child welfare practice at the National Center for Youth Law, a nonprofit law firm focused on low-income children. “But the truth is, thousands of traumatized children are still lingering in massive detention sites on military bases or convention centers, and many have been relegated to unsafe and unsanitary conditions.”

Ceasefire calls and U.S. credibility (Foreign Policy) As the bombings [in Gaza] continue, the human toll is becoming clearer. More than 52,000 people in Gaza have been displaced by Israel’s aerial assault, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday, with most seeking refuge in U.N.-run schools. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) confirmed that 11 of the more than 60 children killed so far by Israeli airstrikes were participants in an NRC program helping children deal with trauma. Even if hostilities soon end, the Biden administration’s resistance to a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire has tested U.S. credibility. “They pledged to come back and support the U.N. system and multilateralism,” one council diplomat said in a report by Foreign Policy’s Colum Lynch and Robbie Gramer. “We don’t see that happening now in the Security Council.” The episode also encouraged China to carve out a leadership role at the Security Council on Middle East issues, a topic where it usually takes a back seat, while at the same time allowing it to dodge questions on its actions in Xinjiang. Multiple reports appeared on Tuesday, attempting to shine light on Biden’s approach not to call publicly for a cease-fire. They depict an administration wary of getting on the bad side of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The tactic has been criticized as a misreading of U.S. leverage over an ally to which it provides significant military aid and political support. Shibley Telhami, writing in the Boston Globe, voiced some of that criticism on Tuesday. “If an American president cannot leverage this extraordinary and unprecedented support to advance core American values,” Telhami writes, “what hope is there for succeeding anywhere else?”

Spain Sends Troops to African Enclave After Migrant Crossings Jump (NYT) Spain deployed troops, military trucks and helicopters in its North African enclave of Ceuta on Tuesday after thousands of people crossed over from Morocco, one of the largest movements of migrants reported in the area in recent years. More than 8,000 migrants, including nearly 2,000 minors, arrived on the beaches of Ceuta on Monday and Tuesday, mostly swimming or aboard inflatable boats, according to the Spanish authorities, who said that Spain had already sent back 4,000 people. The sudden arrival of thousands of people in Ceuta—more than had attempted the crossing in all the rest of the year so far—comes amid a deepening diplomatic spat between Spain and Morocco over the hospitalization in Spain of the leader of a rebel group that has fought for the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco. Videos broadcast on Spanish television on Tuesday appeared to show Moroccan border guards opening fences to the Spanish enclave. While Morocco has warned of “consequences” for harboring the rebel leader, it was not immediately clear if the spike in migration was linked to the diplomatic dispute.

Grand day for the French: Cafe and bistro terraces reopen (AP) It’s a grand day for the French. Cafe and restaurant terraces reopened Wednesday after a six-month coronavirus shutdown deprived residents of the essence of French “joie de vivre”—sipping coffee and red wine with friends. The French government is lifting restrictions incrementally to stave off a resurgence of COVID-19 and to give citizens back some of their world famous lifestyle. As part of the plan’s first stage, France’s 7 p.m. nightly curfew was pushed back to 9 p.m. and museums, theaters and cinemas reopened along with outdoor cafe terraces. France is not the first European country to start getting back a semblance of social and cultural life. Italy, Belgium, Hungary and other nations already allow outdoor dining while drinking and eating indoors began Monday in Britain.

Indian navy searches for 78 missing from barge sunk by storm (AP) Indian navy ships and helicopters searched in rough weather and seas Wednesday for 78 people still missing from a barge that sank off Mumbai as a deadly cyclone blew ashore this week. Navy Cdr. Alok Anand said 183 people were rescued within 24 hours by three ships and helicopters engaged in the operation. Cyclone Tauktae, the most powerful storm to hit the region in more than two decades, packed sustained winds of up to 210 kilometers (130 miles) per hour when it came ashore in Gujarat state late Monday. The storm left at least 25 dead in Gujarat and Maharashtra states. The Hindu newspaper Wednesday tallied more than 16,000 houses damaged in Gujarat state and trees and power poles uprooted.

How Myanmar's military moved in on the telecoms sector to spy on citizens (Reuters) In the months before the Myanmar military's Feb. 1 coup, the country's telecom and internet service providers were ordered to install intercept spyware that would allow the army to eavesdrop on the communications of citizens, sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters. The technology gives the military the power to listen in on calls, view text messages and web traffic including emails, and track the locations of users without the assistance of the telecom and internet firms, the sources said. The directives are part of a sweeping effort by the army to deploy electronic surveillance systems and exert control over the internet with the aim of keeping tabs on political opponents, squashing protests and cutting off channels for any future dissent, they added.

Restrictions reimposed as virus resurges in much of Asia (AP) Taxi drivers are starved for customers, weddings are suddenly canceled, schools are closed, and restaurant service is restricted across much of Asia as the coronavirus makes a resurgence in countries where it had seemed to be well under control. Sparsely populated Mongolia has seen its death toll soar from 15 to 233, while Taiwan, considered a major success in battling the virus, has recorded more than 1,000 cases since last week and placed over 600,000 people in two-week medical isolation. Hong Kong and Singapore have postponed a quarantine-free travel bubble for a second time after an outbreak in Singapore of uncertain origin. China, which has all but stamped out local infections, has seen new cases apparently linked to contact with people arriving from abroad. The resurgence hasn’t come close to the carnage wrought in India and parts of Europe, but it is a keen reminder that the virus remains resilient.

Immigration In Japan Under Pressure (NYT) For months Japanese jailers said they ‘thought’ the young migrant from Sri Lanka was faking her illness, even as she wasted away before their eyes before dying alone in her cell. Wishma Rathayake had a lifelong fascination with Japan. She entered the country in the summer of 2017 to study Japanese at a school in the Tokyo suburbs, hoping eventually to teach English. She met another Sri Lankan student in Japan who became her boyfriend. Sadly, after a series of unwise decisions, unfortunate events, and a now-expired residence permit, she found herself in a detention center a few hours south of Tokyo, awaiting deportation. It was August 2020. While in detention she was threatened by her ex-boyfriend, now back in Sri Lanka. She thought she’d be safer in Japan, and with the encouragement of advisers at START, a local nonprofit, she decided to try to stay. That move irritated officials at the detention center, who demanded she change her mind. In late December Wishma fell ill with a fever. Within weeks she was having trouble eating, standing, and speaking. In late January 2021 a doctor prescribed her vitamins and painkillers, but they made her even sicker, so she filed for a provisional release. Detention centers had already released hundreds of healthy detainees due to coronavirus concerns, but in mid-February Wishma’s request was denied without explanation. She submitted a second request on medical grounds; by this time she was so weak she could barely sign the form. Despite the severity of her symptoms, officials waited until March 4 to take her to a hospital. Two days later the 33-year-old was dead.      Japan has a long history of hostility toward immigration. Despite being the world’s third-largest economy, it settles less than 1% of asylum applicants—just 47 in 2020. Critics of the country’s immigration system say most decisions are made in secret; detainees who have overstayed their visas can be held indefinitely, with little access to courts. Detainees who apply for asylum, as Wishma did, are particularly unwelcome. Critics say Wishma was the victim of an opaque and capricious bureaucracy that has nearly unchecked power over foreigners who run afoul of it. And while there have been other instances of inhumane treatment of foreigners that ended in death, especially for people of color, the particularly egregious circumstances of Wishma’s death have driven national outrage to a whole new level. Protesters have gathered almost daily in front of Parliament, and objections by opposition lawmakers have been unusually fierce.

Experts warn shuttered Australia is becoming a ‘hermit nation’ (AFP) Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended his “Fortress Australia” Covid-19 restrictions Tuesday, as experts warned that plans to keep the borders closed for another year will create a “hermit nation”. Last March, Australia took the unprecedented step of closing its borders to foreign visitors and banning its globetrotting citizens from leaving. That prompted the first population decline since World War I, stranded tens of thousands of Australian citizens overseas and separated hundreds of thousands of residents from family members. But the country now has almost no community transmission and life for most is relatively normal. And the government’s recent suggestion that borders could remain closed for another year has sparked fierce debate. Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid on Tuesday warned: “Australia cannot keep its international borders closed indefinitely.” A University of Sydney task force examining how Australia can safely reopen this week went further, warning the country “cannot continue to lock itself off from the world as a hermit nation indefinitely”.

Powerless (NYT) Abeer Ghanem, like many Gazans, long struggled to work around the long blackouts that blighted the besieged Palestinian enclave along the Mediterranean Sea. But with the outbreak of hostilities a week ago between Israel and the Hamas militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, she said, she now gets at best four hours of electricity a day, intermittently. When it comes on, her family scrambles to charge their lights and batteries for the long, sleepless nights punctuated by outgoing Hamas rockets and the thunder of Israeli airstrikes. A combination of fuel shortages, damage to the electricity supply lines running from Israel and an aerial bombardment that has torn apart local power lines means that many families are receiving at most three to four hours of electricity a day, according to Gaza’s power company. “What we have now for fuel will last for two or three days,” said Mohammed Thabet, a spokesman for the Electricity Distribution Co. of Gaza. The power shortages are compounding the daily misery for Gazans and are also taking a toll on the provision of water, sewage treatment and the ability of hospitals, swamped with casualties, to function. Even if supplies resume, the crisis has caused millions of dollars in infrastructure damage.

Palestinians go on strike as Israel-Hamas fighting rages (AP) Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territories went on strike in a rare collective protest Tuesday as Israeli missiles toppled a building in Gaza and militants in the Hamas-ruled territory fired dozens of rockets that killed two people. The general strike was a sign that the war could widen again after a spasm of communal violence in Israel and protests across the occupied West Bank last week. Although the strike was peaceful in many places, with shops in Jerusalem’s usually bustling Old City markets shuttered, violence erupted in cities in the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinians burned tires in Ramallah and hurled stones at an Israeli military checkpoint. Troops fired tear gas, and protesters picked up some of the canisters and threw them back. Three protesters were killed and more than 140 wounded in clashes with Israeli troops in Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and other cities, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli army said two soldiers were wounded by gunshots to the leg. The general strike was an uncommon show of unity by Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 20% of its population.

[loyallogic]

$34.8 Billion Opportunity for Indian M&E Lawyers

This article is written by Suman Chatterjee, Team LawSikho.

Netflix Inc. expanded by 700 percent due to local content and marketing endeavors that attracted a bigger active user base in 2018-19.

Twitter collaborated with 12 Indian video partners for live streaming of sports, news and entertainment events, including video highlights.

The Indian digital industry is expected to grow by 32% CAGR with market sizes of Rs 18,986 crores (or $2.93 billion) with higher internet penetration and more affordable data consumption rates.

And…

With a CAGR of 13.5%, the Indian media and entertainment (a.k.a M&E) industry is all set to grow to over 257,415 crores (or US$34.8 billion) by 2021 and Rs 307,000 crores (or, US$ 43.93 billion) by 2024. 

Let’s just say that the Indian M&E industry is HUGE!

So is the opportunity for media and entertainment lawyers.

But amidst all the glitz and glamour, the media and entertainment industry is also fraught with illegal gray zones, and one unwanted slip can lead to high-end legal complications.

When the filmmakers of ‘Judgmental Hai Kya’ are sued over copyright issues by some European artist, who makes money? Of course, the M&E lawyers!

When ‘Padmavaat’ is banned by 4 states and a plea is submitted to the Supreme Court, who gets the front role? Of course, the M&E lawyers!

When a YouTube influencer’s ex-boyfriend goes on to create a knockoff of her persona, starting from her mannerisms to her music, who gets to laugh the biggest laugh? You guessed it: the M&E lawyers, of course!

These are just a few examples but the M&E industry entails a plethora of legal tasks to be taken care of by legal professionals—whether it is obtaining CBFC certification, defending a client in sedition or obscenity cases or advising on how to contain fake news on social media. 

Whether: 

you join a top-notch law firm that is big on stringent paperwork that disposes of the need to go to courts; or 

you start up your own independent legal practice with sole focus on litigation (probably with Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt being your biggest clients!); 

I would say that opportunities abound in media and entertainment law. In case you are wondering where exactly do those opportunities lie, here is where they are:

#1. Media and Entertainment law firms

While the number is few, a few big-scale nationalized law firms, which deal with media and entertainment law, exist in the hot and happening cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. 

If you are interested in media and entertainment laws, top-tier law firms like Nisith Desai Associates, DSK Legal and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas that have separate departments handling media and entertainment cases (also known as TMT or Telecom, Media and Technology) might be of interest to you. 

Spanning from contract drafting to mergers and acquisitions in the media sector to data protection and cyber forensics, the scope of learning would be big nonetheless.

Also, the initial paycheck is often over one lakh per month for freshers—not a shabby amount, right?

You can also join boutique law firms that are focused on the M&E industry like Banana IP, Naik Naik & Co, Phoenix Legal, etc. New ones are cropping up every day. 

Your work will mostly revolve around either litigation or transactional practice. Joining a law firm might be the best way to dip your feet into a legal area, since you will be able to learn the tricks of the trade from your experienced seniors.

#2. Media & Entertainment Companies

Big video production companies like Viacom, Balaji Telefilms and Yashraj films need help with drafting celebrity contracts, promotional event agreements and dealing with local authorities for approvals for sets and shoots. 

Starting from IP protection and monetization to licensing and distribution of music to preventing piracy, a media and entertainment lawyer has got his hands full for sure.

Then there are music production companies like T-Series, Saregama, Tips Industries, Times Music, etc. which look for legal talent in the media and entertainment industry. If we are talking about the production companies, how can we keep the distribution companies out of the equation? 

Click Above

Eros International, Zee Entertainment, Star Group, PVR … the list goes on.

Add to them the print media companies like Bennet Coleman and HT Media, and you can see how there are literally thousands of organizations you can apply to as an in-house counsel right now. 

What’s more, we still haven’t considered the freelance content creators and small production houses—the market is worth over 30 billion dollars and is HUGE.  

Who said only engineers could have all the fun?!

All these companies have their own in-house legal departments to draft agreements and contracts, manage talents and staff, and protect the rights over a piece of content created. The in-house counsels are expected to understand business from a legal perspective and advise the company in their day-to-day functioning.

Do remember this though: it is a highly-demanding and niche area, and only those who not only excel in law but are also able to survive in a dynamic and fast working environment will be able to thrive.

#3. Independent Lawyers

You can always fly solo without attaching yourself to a law firm or media and entertainment company. (Do think long and hard enough before you take the jump though.)

You can be the next Harish Salve or Mukul Rohatgi fighting for the rights of the filmmakers of another ‘Padmaavat’ or you could be a Priyanka Khimani representing the likes of Lata Mangeshkar, Sonu Nigam, Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh.

A substantial part of your waking hours would be spent in acquiring and maintaining clients. 

It’s YOU who would have to sift through case laws day in and day out.

It’s YOU who would have to draft one contract after another.

It���s YOU who would be attending conferences every other evening.

It’s YOU who would have to get on LinkedIn and hunt down prospects.

It’s YOU who would be looking after finances and taxation.

It’s not easy but it can be fun once you get the hang of it.

But . . .

What if we could make it a bit easier for you?

Interested in media and entertainment laws? 

We have the RIGHT course to help you acquire practical insights and actionable strategies that would help you break into and excel as an M&E lawyer.

Diploma in Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Laws

Here’s what you will learn (a sneak peek!):

How to handle prosecution for IP infringement for your clients;

How to develop an offensive and defensive patent portfolio strategy;

Structuring and drafting in-licensing and out-licensing deals;

Devising master strategies to prevent piracy and online leaks; 

Preparing franchise agreements for online and offline ventures;

Procuring compulsory license and appraising intellectual property;

How to deal with GST and entertainment tax issues for media production and distribution; 

and much more.

The course entitlements include:

Easy 24/7 online access to course material (printed hard copy included). 

2 practical drafting exercises per week, with personal feedback. 

One live online class per week, with doubt-clearing over WhatsApp, through a discussion board on the LMS and in live classes.

Free access to our paid members-only community.

CV enhancement and professional networking training. 

100% internship and job assistance.

With 30-days full money back guarantee, you can try this exclusive course risk-free today.

Interested?

Read on for full details.

To your success,

P. S. The enrolment for the following courses are ending in 5 days.

DIPLOMA

Diploma in M&A, Institutional Finance and Investment Laws (PE and VC transactions)

Diploma in Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Laws

Diploma in Companies Act, Corporate Governance and SEBI Regulations

Diploma in Business Laws for In-House Counsels

EXECUTIVE CERTIFICATE COURSES

Certificate Course in Legal Practice Development and Management

Certificate Course in Real Estate Laws

Certificate Course in Advanced Criminal Litigation & Trial Advocacy

Certificate Course in Media and Entertainment Law: Contracts, Licensing and Regulations

LawSikho has created a telegram group for exchanging legal knowledge, referrals and various opportunities. You can click on this link and join:

https://t.me/joinchat/J_0YrBa4IBSHdpuTfQO_sA

Follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more amazing legal content.

The post $34.8 Billion Opportunity for Indian M&E Lawyers appeared first on iPleaders.

$34.8 Billion Opportunity for Indian M&E Lawyers published first on https://namechangers.tumblr.com/

[technologyinfosec]

Billionaire Anil Ambani says he's now worth nothing

Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani was a wealthy businessman and now he is not as a result of a 'disastrous turn of events' in the telecom market in India, his lawyers told a UK court on Friday as they fought a bid by top Chinese banks to recover $680 million from the Indian businessman. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd Mumbai Branch, on behalf of itself, China Development Bank and Exim Bank of China, had sought summary judgment against Ambani over an alleged breach of a personal guarantee on a debt refinancing loan of around $925 million in February 2012. Ambani, 60, denies providing authority for any such guarantee, resulting in the High Court action in the UK - the jurisdiction agreed to as part of the terms of the loan agreement. At a hearing at the Commercial Division of the High Court of England and Wales in London to set the terms for the 'conditional order' granted to three Chinese banks last year against the Reliance Communications (RCom) boss, his legal team sought to establish that his net worth was zero once his liabilities were taken into account. 'The value of Mr Ambani's investments has collapsed since 2012. The Indian telecom sector in particular has been dramatically hit by the Indian government's change of policy in relation to the grant of spectrum,' notes his defence. 'Whereas Mr Ambani's investments were worth more than $7 billion in 2012, they are now worth $89 million, and his net worth is zero once his liabilities are taken into account... Quite simply, he was a wealthy businessman, now he is not,' said his barrister Robert Howe. The banks' counsel called Ambani's claims into question and repeatedly referred to his 'lavish lifestyle', involving access to 11 or so luxury cars, a private jet, a yacht and rent-free access to the exclusive Seawind penthouse in South Mumbai. 'So, Mr Ambani's assertion is that he is massively personally insolvent, is bankrupt. Has he filed for bankruptcy in India,' questioned Justice David Waksman during the course of the half-day hearing. Ambani's legal team, including leading Indian lawyer Harish Salve, responded in the negative, followed by a brief reference in court to India's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) only recently coming into play. 'The evidence overall is that Mr Ambani could not come close to paying a sum of $700 million into court,' said Howe. At the end of the hearing on Friday, the judge indicated that he will hand down his judgement later in the day. The Chinese banks -- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd Mumbai Branch, China Development Bank and Exim Bank of China -- represented in court by barrister Bankim Thanki, sought to establish that Ambani had been 'at best economical with the truth' in his evidence statements to the court in relation to his financial means. They also pointed to a series of instances where Ambani family members had stepped in to bail him out, even as Ambani's defence sought to establish that their client had no access to the assets and shares under the name of his mother Kokila, wife Tina Ambani and sons Anmol and Anshul in the form of loans. 'Are we seriously to believe that his own mother, wife, and sons can't help him in his hour of need for the purpose of complying with a conditional order,' said Thanki, who claimed Ambani's evidence was akin to the proverbial 'glossy lipstick on the collar' in terms of some 'blatant' lies despite the burden of proof lying with him in the case. 'ADA's (Anil Dhirajlal Ambani) brother Mukesh is widely regarded as the wealthiest man in Asia and is ranked by Forbes as the 13th richest person in the world and by Bloomberg as the 14th richest person in the world. He has an estimated net worth of $55 to 57 billion,' notes the banks' defence. 'Despite all of this, ADA has failed to address in any detail the possibility of financial assistance being provided by Mukesh or any other member of his family,' it notes. At the last hearing in the case in December last year, Justice Waksman said he was 'very nearly prepared' to grant judgment against Ambani because he found the RCom chief's evidence 'inexplicably incomplete, implausible and highly unlikely'. 'I think it is highly probable that at trial his defence will be shown to be opportunistic and false... I consider that this is a plain case for the making of a conditional order,' Justice Waksman said, as he granted a conditional order in principle to the Chinese banks. The order means the High Court, after hearing arguments on Ambani's financial means this week, will set an appropriate amount as an effective court deposit pending a full trial in the case. On December 16, when the UK High Court dismissed an application filed by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited for a 'summary judgement' in its claims of $680 million against Ambani, a spokesperson of the RCom boss had said: 'Ambani was confident that he will have an opportunity to place the necessary evidence before the UK High Court, in the course of the trial to establish that Chinese banks claim are without any merit'. The spokesperson said in a statement that Ambani was confident that his position would be fully vindicated once all the facts and the entire evidence is before the Court. Read the full article

[brisbanecollection-blog]

Behind bars: India's 'Diamond King' Nirav Modi's fall from grace

Today, the "jeweller to the stars", as he was frequently called, is behind bars after a year-long Interpol-led manhunt that led to his arrest in central London on March 19. Together with his diamond polisher uncle, Mehul Choksi, he is accused of conniving with junior tellers to defraud the Mumbai branch of India's second-largest state-run bank, the Punjab National Bank, of billions of dollars. Scotland Yard made the arrest on behalf of Indian authorities, who have asked for his extradition. Two weeks earlier, his whereabouts were exposed when Britain's Telegraph newspaper doorstopped him near a flat he was renting in Soho. They found him sporting a handlebar moustache and an ostrich-skin jacket. The "Great Indian Bank Robbery", as Indian media outlets have dubbed it, has shaken the country's $US35-billion diamond sector to the core. From the small family-run concerns of Zaveri Bazaar to the dealers at Mumbai's glistening Bharat Diamond Bourse, the largest in the world, many traders fear that an industry that largely ran on trust might find its reputation on par with that of the scavengers sweeping the streets outside their shops. Modi came from the Jain community of Palanpur, a small town in the western state of Gujarat. And it is among the Palanpuri Jains that the fallout of his alleged crimes is being most acutely felt.

Mumbais jewellery market, the Zaveri Bazaar. Credit:Getty Images The alleged modus operandi behind the biggest bank fraud in Indian history was revealed in a July 2018 dossier prepared for the US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, which is investigating the activities of three of Modi's American jewellery companies. According to the 165-page dossier, Modi and his co-conspirators illegally borrowed approximately $US4 billion over a period of seven years by manufacturing sham transactions purportedly to "import" diamonds and other gems into India from trading hubs such as Belgium's Antwerp, using a web of more than 20 secretly controlled shell entities. Diamonds sold to or purchased from these entities "were routinely shipped out the same day or within days after arrival, without ever being opened or inspected by employees to ascertain the contents of the packets", the dossier states. Certain high-value diamonds were bought and sold multiple times at often wildly inflated prices in order to create the appearance of millions of dollars worth of legitimate transactions and to facilitate the movement of funds. Fraudulently obtained letters of undertaking (LOUs), or guarantees under which Indian banks allow their customers to obtain short-term credit from another bank's foreign branch to facilitate import transactions into India, were also used. It was only when one of the bank employees allegedly involved in the scam retired that the seven-year-long operation was exposed. US authorities are also believed to be considering extraditing Modi. Punjab National Bank shares plummeted when the scandal broke in February 2018, as did confidence in India's dysfunctional state-run banking sector, which has lost billions of dollars in recent years from investor frauds. Screaming matches erupted in India's parliament, with opposition parties accusing the government of colluding with the diamantaire to allow him to flee the country. Modi had left India early the previous month bound for Britain, the bolthole of choice for business barons wanted by Indian authorities for tax evasion, fraud and other related crimes. Modi's Indian assets, including the flagship stores that bore his name, a fleet of luxury cars and several factories, have been seized by the authorities. Last month, his art collection was auctioned by India's tax authority, raising $US8 million. Thousands of his employees have been laid off. Modi's Indian lawyer, Vijay Aggarwal, has successfully defended some of India's largest corporate fraud cases. Described as "pugilistic, pugnacious and aggressive" by his critics, his courtroom victories include securing the acquittal of several high-profile businessmen and politicians accused of defrauding the state of a staggering $US26 billion in the allocation of second generation or 2G telecom licences. Aggarwal, who did not respond to interview requests by Good Weekend, told a Mumbai court in January that India's Enforcement Directorate had tried to "falsely implicate" his client by giving a "colour of criminality" to "usual civil banking transactions" to camouflage the bank's failures in connection with the alleged scam. Modi's defence team is expected to argue that the charges against him are politically motivated. India is in the middle of a six-week-long national election, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's alleged connivance with corrupt business figures a major issue. For a man whose number was once on the speed-dial of many of Mumbai's A-list, Modi's fall from grace has been dramatic. The 48-year-old grew up in Belgium, where his father, Deepak Modi, ran a business trading in uncut diamonds. He attended the Antwerp International School, where he dreamt of becoming a music conductor, but instead enrolled in Wharton business college at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1990, he moved from the US to Mumbai to begin a decade-long apprenticeship with his uncle, Mehul Choksi, learning everything from polishing diamonds to selling them. He would later say that he worked 12 hours a day, six and a half days a week, for 3500 rupees ($70) a month. By 1999, he had raised enough capital to launch his own company, Firestar Diamond. Over the next few years, Firestar went on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire firms such as US-based jewellery retailer Samuels and the De Beers-owned Nakshatra brand, which had 480 stores in India.

Modis uncle and co-accused, Mehul Choksi, with Bollywood actress Urvashi Sharma. Credit:AFP When the global financial crisis hit in 2008 and the value of large diamonds fell by up to 40 per cent, Modi took the opportunity to buy diamonds at cheap prices, including $15 million worth of rare pink diamonds from Argyle in Australia's Kimberley. In 2009, he switched his main supplier from De Beers to Russia's Alrosa, just as the global diamond giant's output plummeted and the Russian company's rose. His move from retail to design came in 2009, when a friend asked him to make a pair of earrings for her. After months of persuasion, he relented. "I can actually look back to [this] single moment that propelled me into starting my eponymous brand," Modi told Forbes in 2017. He had at last found his calling. His big breakthrough as a designer came in 2010, when a necklace set with a flawless pear-shaped 12.29-carat Golconda diamond was featured on the cover of a Christie's auction catalogue.

Modis 12.29-carat Golconda diamond necklace. The piece went under the hammer in Hong Kong for $US3.6 million, nearly a million dollars more than its asking price. A year later, he launched his eponymous Nirav Modi brand, a line that would blend the best of Eastern and Western designs. "All of my jewellery marries my Indian roots with my international exposure and love of art, nature, travel and poetry," he once said. "Every collection has its own unique story to tell." His target buyer was the "woman of global sensibilities". His focus was on delivering pieces that would go as well with a gown as with a sari. "The jewellery should move with the woman, it should be a second skin." No expense was spared in achieving his dream of becoming one of the world's top five luxury jewellery brands. Millions of dollars were spent on two state-of-the-art factories in India to manufacture his designs. Showrooms fitted out by Spanish artist-designer Jaime Hayon sprang up in cities such as New York, London, New Delhi and Hong Kong. Former palaces were hired for product launches, with Bollywood stars and Indian billionaires arriving by private jet. Modi's public persona he was rarely photographed without being flanked by celebrities was very different to his private one. "He never could look you in the eye," says a former business associate, who asks not to be named. "He always played his cards close to his chest."

Nirav Modi with actor Naomi Watts at the opening of his New York boutique in 2015.Credit:Getty Images By 2013, Modi had entered the Forbes list of billionaires with a net worth of $US1.4 billion and two years later, became the first Indian retailer to open on New York's Madison Avenue. His signature pieces now graced the necklines and earlobes of celebrities such as Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet, Taraji P. Henson and supermodel Karlie Kloss as they strode down the red carpet at the Oscars. British actor and model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was hired to be the "face" of the brand. Indian actress Priyanka Chopra (now Chopra-Jonas) appeared in a commercial that ended with the punchline "Say Yes, Forever". Chopra-Jonas is now suing Modi for non-payment of fees. The fallout from the Modi affair goes far deeper than his failure to settle his debts. Shortly after India's independence in 1947, the Jains of Palanpur followers of a religion which emerged on the subcontinent around the sixth century BC and which preaches non-violence, strict vegetarianism and renunciation of worldly effects abandoned their traditional occupations as bankers and money-lenders and began trading in diamonds. Like Modi's father, many moved to Antwerp, buying low-quality roughs, sending them back to India for polishing and then selling them at a small profit. Today a community of no more than 20,000 controls India's multibillion-dollar diamond cutting and polishing industry. Modi never could look you in the eye. He always played his cards close to his chest. "Their reputation has definitely taken a beating because of Modi," says Usha Balakrishnan, a Mumbai-based authority on India's jewellery trade. "Normally the community will close ranks behind one of their own. This time, they have disowned him." Balakrishnan traces the community's rise to the 1960s, when De Beers began looking for a centre to cut and polish its vast stockpile of industrial and small diamonds. India's plentiful supply of low-cost skilled labour made it the most attractive option and the Palanpuris were well positioned to supply the mining giant's demands. Community members started returning to India, where they dominated the wholesale diamond trade in Zaveri Bazaar and the cutting and polishing centres in cities such as Surat in Gujarat. When Zaveri Bazaar's congested office spaces became too small, most traders moved to the Bharat Diamond Bourse, a sprawling eight-hectare complex in central Mumbai that opened in 2001 and is now home to more than 2500 companies. Known for their work ethic and close family ties, Palanpuri Jains rarely marry outside their community. If one of their own falls on hard times, extended families act as a safety net, providing jobs, accommodation and financial help. Networks of loyalty and trust that go back generations have been shaken by Modi's alleged wrongdoings. Ashish Mehta, a Palanpuri Jain whose company, Kantilal Chhotalal, is one of the diamond industry's leading players, says the allegations surrounding Modi have shocked the community. "The last few years when he was opening stores in places like London, New York and Hong Kong, most people were wondering how he was able to grow so fast. Nobody knew that there was this borrowed money behind the market aggression that he was showing. That was to most of us a big surprise."

Model/actor Rosie Huntington-Whiteley at another Modi store-opening in London in 2016.Credit:Alamy Modi kept a low profile in the community, once boasting: "Ask any jeweller in Mumbai if he has met me in the last decade and the answer you'll get is no." When it came to networking with the city's business and cultural elite, however, he was everywhere, buying up contemporary Indian art at auctions, attending high-society weddings, and enticing Bollywood stars to buy his creations. He was anathema in a traditionally conservative community that shied away from retail and prided themselves on keeping out of the spotlight. After the Punjab National Bank scandal broke, the demand for diamond jewellery in India plummeted by 10 to 15 per cent, according to the Indian industry lobby group Assocham. There are also fears that India might lose its near monopoly on diamond cutting and polishing, with new entrants such as China poised to take advantage of the turmoil. Small and medium-sized traders are feeling the greatest impact, says Mehta. "Banks are worried, so they have curtailed their lending facilities and are now asking for more collateral than before." While hikes in short-term interest rates and a tightening of repayment terms are quantifiable, the erosion of trust is harder to measure. At Mumbai's Diamond Bourse, transactions worth millions of dollars are sealed with a handshake and contracts and invoices are almost unheard of. Even the transportation of rough diamonds from the bourse to the cutting and polishing centres is entrusted to a centuries-old system run by the Angadias, a community of couriers who secrete their precious cargo in hidden pockets and rely on their anonymity to keep it safe. Naming and shaming is not something that comes naturally to Palanpuri Jains, but Mehta concedes that Modi's actions have harmed the trade. "When the consumers see that there is a guy like this in your community, your credibility for sure gets affected." Back in Zaveri Bazaar, the streets have been swept by the niarewalas to a level of cleanliness uncharacteristic by Mumbai standards and the stores are starting to open. My guide is the pugnacious Rajesh Chugani, a small-time jewellery manufacturer who buys his stones from local wholesalers and sends them to his workshop in nearby Masjid Bandar. Chugani takes me deep inside the labyrinthine laneways of the bazaar, up crumbling staircases and down dimly lit corridors so narrow two people can hardly pass. An open doorway reveals a huddle of buyers engaged in heated negotiations with a wholesaler over a fistful of gold necklaces. Further on, a diamond is being cut in a hot and humid room no bigger than a broom closet. Business is brisk and demand for traditional commodities such as gold is as strong as ever. But the traders Chugani deals with say the Modi affair has made it harder for them to get bank credit and consumers are suspicious about the quality of stones on sale. "In this industry it's impossible to grow overnight; that should have sent alarm bells ringing somewhere down the line, I think the government is also covering up," Chugani says, referring to the commonly held belief of a nexus of corruption between politicians and high-profile business people. Small units such as Chugani's have always accounted for the bulk of India's jewellery manufacturing. The set-up inside the four-metre by three-metre room where eight men work 10-hour days might look Dickensian, but it is sophisticated and includes the use of 3D-printers to make moulds, and a network of CCTV cameras that monitor every corner of the workshop and can be remotely controlled by an app on his smartphone. It's unlikely that Chugani's clients, many of whom are based in the Middle East, would know or care about the conditions under which their engagement rings or diamond bracelets are made. Maintaining close relations with his suppliers and customers and providing quality products is what makes thousands of businesses like his prosper. "Whatever you'll see in a catalogue, we can copy and sell it more cheaply," says Chugani as he inspects a diamond brooch that one of his workmen is repairing. "I can make you a Nirav Modi piece as well," he adds cheekily. "And I don't think he's in a position to complain if I do." Chugani is safe for now. Even if Britain accedes to India's extradition request, it may take years for the country's notoriously slow legal system to decide on Modi's guilt or innocence. The damage to the trust that has kept the diamond industry so prosperous may take even longer to repair. To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times Most Viewed in World Loading https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/asia/behind-bars-india-s-diamond-king-nirav-modi-s-fall-from-grace-20190423-p51gf4.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[juudgeblog]

5 Law Firms In India With The Best Media Law Practice

This article is written by Mohona Thakur from Team iPleaders.

During a three-day Certificate Course on Media and Entertainment Law about 3 years ago at my alma mater, ILS Law College, Pune, I had the good fortune of being a part of an hour long session by Mr. Ameet Naik, the Founding Partner of Naik Naik & Co.

During this one hour of good fortune, Mr. Naik took us through his days of struggle as a young advocate and what led him to form his own law firm. He spoke about why he chose such a niche sector – media and entertainment – to focus his firms practice on, at a time when bollywood in itself was struggling to come of age.

Think about it. While we see so many law firms in India thriving and garnering success because they have a strong transactional or general corporate practice, how many law firms do you know of that are well-known for their practice in media and entertainment laws? How many of them took a chance and ventured out to build a career in this niche and upcoming field of law?

I took the liberty of doing a little bit of research to find out about firms, known names and cases they have to their credit in the media and entertainment sector. Here is what I could come up with:

  Naik Naik & Co.

  Established in 2004, the firm boasts of a large clientele with big names from the industry such as Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Ms. Deepika Padukone, Ms. Sonam Kapoor amongst many others. It also represents productions houses such as T-Series, Viacom 18, Endemol and Tips Industries.

With major wins such as securing the stay on the ban notified by four states of India on the screening of Padmavat earlier in the year to the recent win in the Supreme Court for Madhur Bhandarkar and Bharat Shah on the release of their movie Indu Sarkar. Not only does the firm have major wins to their name, but also a number of crucial judgments in the media space are thanks to them. Be it the judgment passed by the Supreme Court in the Aarakshan Case in 2011 which is now considered a landmark, to securing John Doe orders from the high courts in India to fight the menace of piracy, the firm has a lot of golden hats in its kitty!

In addition, the firm believes in delivering results and relies heavily on the domain knowledge of its resources for the turnaround time. They don’t just understand the law, but also understand the business, which helps them deliver better results than their contemporaries in the market.

Ms. Madhu Goradia and Mr. Ravi Suryavanshi are the partners who deal with the Telecom Media and Technology (TMT) practice of this firm. Ms. Goradia alone has represented clients in over 500 cases!

With three office in Bombay and numerous accolades, I believe it is safe to say that Naik dominates the legal business in the media industry. In case you’d like to know more about the firm and their practice, you can visit their website here.

  DSK Legal

  The firm has a multi-disciplinary team with over a 100 lawyers spread across their offices in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. If we are to look specifically at the team members that work in the IP Law and TMT sector, three names would have to be mentioned: Mr. Anand Desai (Managing Partner), Ms. Chandrima Mitra (Partner) and Mr. Tushar Ajinkya (Partner).

DSK Legal has been handling both disputes as well as transactions for its media clientele. This is the law firm that represented Salman Khan in the 2002 hit and run case and responsible for the speedy bail they received in the matter within 5 hours of the sentence being pronounced.

On the transaction side, Aamir Khan is an old client of Mr. Desai. The firm was responsible for structuring a finance-cum-distribution deal with PVR for Aamir Khan. Mr. Desai was also responsible for structuring the co-production between Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Sony Pictures for the movie Saawariya. Back then , it was one of the very first times that a major foreign company was co-producing a movie in India and it was absolutely important that the rights to exploitation of the film were negotiated well.

Being a full-service law firm, DSK also advices some of its media clients on tax issues. A number of producers in India look at the option of vesting their rights in the film in Mauritius to save up on tax, especially with the increasing revenue being generated from abroad. Hence, legal advisory on tax is also a service that this firm offers to its media clientele

  Saikrishna and Associates

  A pioneer in intellectual property laws, Saikrishna and Associates is a full-service law firm with over a 100 lawyers and 19 Partners and Associate Partners. The key names to note here are Mr. Saikrishna Rajagopal (Managing Partner), Mr. Ameet Datta (Partner, IP and TMT), and Ms. Monica Datta (Partner).

Established in 2001, the firm not only has a huge clientele that includes industry giants such as Star India and Amazon, but also has landmark judgments to its credit. The Doordarshan sports broadcast decision of the Delhi High Court wherein the High Court ruled that Prasar Bharti could only air the footage that other sports broadcasters share with it as mandated by law on terrestrial TV and not on Cable TV is one of the many.

More recently, Sai Krishna was also responsible for securing an order from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approving the release of Avengers: The Age of Ultron after the commission found no anti-competitive behaviour by the Hollywood producers. The firm was acting on behalf of their client Walt Disney.

  Nishith Desai & Associates (NDA)

  NDA has been in the news for providing all-around services in the media and entertainment sector to a number of big names in the industry such as the Times Group, Wipro, Reliance Entertainment, Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc., Sahara, MTV, etc. Gowree Gokhale is the Partner concerned for Intellectual Property and TMT.

The firm specialises in advising the entertainment industry on 14 different aspects: Strategy, Structuring, Regulatory, Documentation and Advisory, IP Advisory, Due Diligence, Production Counsel, Talent Arrangements, Sports, Online Gaming and Casino Laws, Print Media, Joint Ventures and M&A, Capital Markets and Funds & Investments, and Litigation.

To mention a few of their important achievements, they have assisted clients in their proposed bids for the Indian Premiere League for the broadcasting rights and their proposed bids for acquiring Indian Premiere Leagues’ franchise teams. In addition, NDA acted as production counsel to the critically acclaimed Indian film “Black”. As production counsels for “Black”, they advised the client on a host of intellectual property issues arising out of the production of the film.

  Krishnamurthy and Co. (KLaw)

  Nikhil Krishnamurthy is the key person responsible for setting up the Entertainment and Media law practice at KLaw. A former partner at Anand and Anand, Nikhil moved to KLaw as Senior Partner in 2006.

Mr. Krishnamurthy works out of the Bangalore office and has experience of over 18 years. The firm specialises in cases on intellectual property law (IP Litigation), entertainment law, music law, content acquisition, licensing and information technology.

In an interview with indianlawyer250.com, he spoke about his role in India’s first case concerning compulsory licensing of music for radio broadcasting. He represented the FM Radio broadcaster (Music Broadcast) and filed the first application before the Copyright Board under the provisions for compulsory licensing for the purpose of radio broadcast in 2001. The provision had never been exercised in the 43 years that the Copyright Act 1957 had been in force. This very case spun a series of litigations that eventually led to amendment of the Copyright Act in 2012.

Are these the only law firms that specialise in Media and Entertainment Laws?

No. This is not an exhaustive list. There are a number of other law firms that have a legal team dedicated to the TMT sector such as Khaitan & Co. and Anand & Anand & Khimani. In addition, TMT Law, a boutique law firm dealing with specifically the TMT sector headed by NLS alumnus Abhishek Malhotra, recently merged with Bharucha & Partners and has a flourishing media litigation practice!

The question for many law students and aspiring media lawyers still remain the same: how do we make it to these law firms? What will it take to land a job here?

The first step is to know the basics of media and entertainment laws and as we can clearly see, with the sort of work these law firms do, a clear understanding of the media industry and the legal/business issues it faces is critical.

Unfortunately, most law schools in India do not teach media and entertainment laws as a course subject at all, and some of them now teach Intellectual Property Rights, although not at all adequately. There are two ways to go about this, either you land a job (somehow) and learn on the job; or you make a conscious decision of learning the law through the available resources at hand. You could keep a tab on the media and entertainment law columns on Legally India, Bar and Bench and Live Law. You could regularly keep reading blog posts and articles on the industry and watch the news! In addition, you can take up a media law course online that offers you industry insights and networking opportunities with lawyers working exclusively in this industry. And if you’re looking for easy information on the kind of work media lawyers do, there is always SuperLawyer for practical insights!

In my limited experience, the industry is tight-knitted and making it here is difficult to be absolutely honest. The sector is niche, the number of people rooting for a job at these law firms are in hundreds if not thousands, and the positions available are limited. You’ve got to be mentally prepared for a fight, however, with the right set of skills and domain-knowledge, you may be able to set yourself apart!

Don’t stop learning!

  The post 5 Law Firms In India With The Best Media Law Practice appeared first on iPleaders.

5 Law Firms In India With The Best Media Law Practice syndicated from https://namechangersmumbai.wordpress.com/

[vsplusonline]

Inside a $5.7 bn deal: Coronavirus couldn’t logout Facebook & Reliance from “Project Redwood”

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/inside-a-5-7-bn-deal-coronavirus-couldnt-logout-facebook-reliance-from-project-redwood/

Inside a $5.7 bn deal: Coronavirus couldn’t logout Facebook & Reliance from “Project Redwood”

MUMBAI: “Can I catch up on some sleep just for a few hours,” was the first message Anshuman Thakur typed to a senior colleague around on noon right after he finished a media call with Ajit Mohan, Facebook’s head in India.

Thakur, a former telecoms rainmaker at NM-Rothschild-and-Morgan Stanley-turned-head of Strategy and Planning at Reliance, had been up on the phone since 4 am, fine tuning the final raft of documents hours before Facebook announced its strategic $5.7 billion partnership with Reliance early on Wednesday early morning.

A muggy Mumbai night coupled with the excitement of bringing home a deal that has been on the works for over a year made it equally hard to switch off totally in the final hours. And this was by far the most high profile deal of Thakur’s career. The fact that it was getting baked bang in the middle of a global pandemic had added to the complexity.

And truth be told Corona had tripped up the plans. Well almost.

Meet At Menlo Park Stands Cancelled Thakur was to fly to Facebook’s headquarters at Menlo Park along with his bankers, lawyers and colleagues on 16th of March to start crucial negotiating with his Facebook counterpart Raj Singh after the non-binding term sheet got signed in January.

A secret code name – Project Redwood — was also conjured up for the core deal team of around 30, perhaps in sync with its deep California connect. Just like Sycamore, Sequoia or Oregon Ash, Box and White Adler, Redwood is a popular tree to native California, home to Facebook.

The Silicon Valley poster boy last September also had expanded its corporate home spending a billion dollars with a 525,000 square-foot new swanky building building called MPK 21, that was designed by architect Frank Gehry to seat about 3,000 employees. The redwood forest in a courtyard and the 3.6-acre rooftop garden along with a tiered outdoor amphitheater akin to a botanical garden had etched deep resonance to many.

But suddenly the world was under lockdown. Skies were getting shut, borders sealed. The dreaded pandemic was everwhere.

Till then it was relatively smooth. Legal, tax dilligence had begun in full earnest by February under the watchful eyes of RIL old hand K Raja Ramachandran. Commercial deal was completed prior. By then, lawyers — AZB and Davis Poke for Reliance, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Hogan Lovells for Facebook had joined tax auditors PWC and the two lead bankers Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Reliance and their advisors at Morgan Stanley, led by Michael Grimes, their global co-head technology investment banking had opened up the data room around second week of March. From India, telecoms-media-technology banker Kamal Yadav was acting as the pointsman on ground but a face to face meeting was absolutely essential “to connect the dots and cross the tees.”

Thakur did not speak to ET for this story that was pieced together after talking to at least half a dozen people who were directly involved.

A Virtual Project Redwood The lockdown suddenly threw everything out of gear. “Only VCs were the way out,” said an official involved. The first such “virtual meeting” after the aborted March meeting took place around the weekend before Prime Minister Modi announced a nationwide lockdown on March 25th.

“The aim was to make the announcement by March 31st.” quipped another deal insider. “That did not happen but we are not far out either.”

Reliance too needed some good news. For seven years chairman Mukesh Ambani had been on a $100 billion spending spree expanding petrochemicals and building out the world’s largest 4G telecoms network. But a bloated balance sheet was becoming a headache. A deal with Aramco has been still hanging as is its $8 billion Brookfield InvIT transaction.

A new technology partner for Jio to leverage the commerce and retail backbone that Reliance was banking on to break the bank was the right medicine the doctor had ordered.

Preliminary discussions with Google had also taken place but the search giant wanted a chunkier trade and bigger rights. It fell through early on.

Zoom Calls & Blue Jeans What followed was weeks of intense dealmaking via video conferencing via Blue Jeans and Zoom in spite of the time difference between Mumbai and California.

“Manoj Modi would only come in to fill in the big strategic issues. Even on Facebook side, they would circle back with Zuk (Zukerberg),” said another official. “Once at around 8 am IST and again around 9 PM IST, we would regroup to thrash out the nitty gritty,” said officials in the deal team. “Afternoons would be relatively free or would wrap up outstanding issues.”

Even then, uncertainties on the global macro picture loomed ominously in the backdrop. Facebook was convinced about the long term strategic fit but “all of a sudden, discussions on valuations also included the impact of the lockdown on business, turnaround timelines what happens if the lockdown continues,” added another official.

Deal Dynamics Morgan Stanley had came into the picture in the second half of last year having missed out on the Aramco mandate. The Wall Street bank had advised Sony last year when Zee Entertainment was in play. That deal fell apart but Morgan got Sony to talk to Reliance to merge the entertainment business as well. That deal is also in the final laps.

But sources say Mukesh Ambani and Mark Zukerberg had initially toyed with the idea of a collaboration almost 14 months back. Gen Next Akash and Manoj Modi, Mukesh’s consigliere, were also part of the A Team to front the dialogue. Ajit Mohan’s appointment as an MD and Country Head in India, added heft to their presence and reaffirmed the commitment.

“No longer would anyone blame us for not investing enough dollars in India,” quipped an official. “This cheque should silence many.”

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NEW DELHI: A court in London has ruled that if there is irregularity in the conduct of Anil Ambani’s companies, it would be a reflection on the chairman as he is fully involved in operations.The court took note of allegations of irregularities and the departure of PwC as auditor of Reliance Capital. PwC had resigned as auditor last June saying it did not get satisfactory answers to its queries, but the company had said nothing was wrong.“Mr Howe QC suggested that even if there were some truth in these matters, that is all on the part of the companies; it does not necessarily have any reflection on Mr Ambani. That is hopeless in my judgment,” according to the order by Justice Waksman in the case between Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Mumbai Branch and Anil Dhirubhai Ambani. The recent order has now been uploaded.It said Ambani was actively involved in running companies.“It is perfectly clear through all the evidence we have seen that Mr Ambani is not some form of titular chairman who really has nothing to do with these companies.He is extensively and actively involved in them. To suggest that if there were any serious deficiencies in the companies’ corporate governance he was not aware of it is wholly unrealistic in my view.”Ambani’s lawyers had last week told the UK court that business tycoon was not in a position to pay dues worth $680 million to top Chinese banks as his net worth is zero.The Anil Ambani group did not respond to ET’s queries.The court did not believe Ambani’s assertion that his family would not help him. “I do not accept that the true position now is that all the other members of the family have firmly and irrevocably pulled the shutters down so that no funding would be available from them in the event that monies had to be paid into court,” the judge said.Ambani had told the court about the woes of the telecom industry but the judge said this was not the issue before the court.“What is an issue is what he says flows from that.First of all, that, as a result of that, he now has a negative net worth and second, that as a result he does not hold any meaningful assets which can be liquidated …,” the order said. Ambani said even the money paid to Ericsson was not a gift.“He said that, in fact, the payment was made by Reliance Realty Limited on behalf of RCom, and that company had raised the funds by leasing a part of the property that it held to an associate company, Reliance Industries Limited,” the order said.The court mentioned a public statement saying: “My sincere and heartfelt thanks to my respected elder brother, Mukesh, and Nita, for standing by me during these trying times and demonstrating the importance of staying true to our strong family values by extending this timely support. I and my family are grateful we have moved beyond the past and are deeply touched with this gesture.”The order noted Anil Ambani’s response that the statement only captured the gratitude he expressed to his elder brother and his wife.“It is not apparent that the press release which I have already quoted is limited in such a way,” the order said. Anil Ambani had told the court about his personal income.“… in 2018-2019, his income was the equivalent of £12.3 million. A very modest proportion, about £600,000, came from a company called Reliance Infrastructure Limited, for what have been referred to as professional fees; but the rest of it, largely, came from the sale of shares which he held in his brother Mukesh's company, Reliance Industries Limited, which were sold on 6th February 2019.” Ambani also shared his “living expenses” with the court.As at the date of this witness statement, that is January this year, he said that his income by way of fees this year will be about £550,000, which Ambani said ‘will be used for his day-to-day living expenses’. So far as those living expenses are concerned, they were put elsewhere in the statement of net worth as being in the region of $187,000 a year. from Economic Times https://ift.tt/2vyeOQ0

[loyallogic]

Best TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) Law Firms in India

The article is written by Ayush Verma, a student of Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow.

There are not many nationalised firms in the field of TMT and most of them are based out of Delhi and Mumbai. However, there are some boutique firms also that specialise in this field.

The top firms in the field of TMT are determined with the help of information provided on various websites and the awards that went to these firms in the TMT practice. The list of firms given is suggestive based on their rankings on sites.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

The firm started in 2015 after separating from its predecessor Amarchand Mangaldas & Suresh & Shroff Company. It has over 750 lawyers, including 130 partners and its offices are located in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad.

The TMT group of the firm advises clients in structuring and executing of their transactions in the TMT sphere in India, and also provides specialist regulatory and strategic advice. In addition, it provides advice on commercial contracting and represents clients before the regulatory authorities and government departments that are relevant to the constituent industries.

It has a large and diverse clientele in TMT and its sub sectors including:

Information Technology (including software development and licensing)

Outsourcing

Online gaming

Online gambling

Mobile and fixed line telecom operators

Internet service providers

Print and digital media

Broadcasting

Film and music production and distribution

Key Clients

It represented Apollo Hospitals Enterprises in its entry to a long-term partnership with EIT Services India as part of its drive for streamlining and optimising its operation.

Contact details are given here.

Naik Naik & Co.

The firm was founded in 2004 by its Managing Partner, Ameet Naik. The firm has 50 legal professionals working in its three offices in Mumbai.

The firm provides legal assistance to leading production houses, television channels/ broadcasters, studios (including Hollywood studios), digital media companies and content aggregators for and in relation to due diligence, acquisition, production, distribution and exploitation of various films and television shows on various modes, media and format. The firm advises various regulatory and industry bodies, including Indian Broadcasting Federation, Producers Guild, IFTPC on industry related issues.

Key Clients

It represented Viacom 18 in procuring the stay on ban in the screening of Padmavat Movie by the four states of India. The firm also helped in securing John Doe orders from the high courts in India to fight the menace of piracy.

Other notable clients include Amitabh Bacchan, Deepika Padukone and Ms. Sonam Kapoor.

Contact details are given here.

AZB & Partners

The firm was established in 2004 by Zia Mody along with Bahram Vakil and Ajay Bahl. It has 500+ employees and its offices are located in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai.

The firm is highly experienced in TMT practice and in assisting clients with issues ranging from content licensing to providing counsel on online entertainment regulations. It has also worked in the areas of cable television channels, Direct to Home platforms, radio and film production and in assisting Media Houses for their initial public offerings. The firm has also represented its clients outside India in international courts in matters relating to telecast rights, intellectual property disputes and antitrust and privacy issues with regulators.

Key Clients

It represented Wipro in assisting clients with issues ranging from content licensing to providing advice on online entertainment regulations.

Contact details are given here.

Trilegal

The firm was established in 2000. It has over 300 lawyers and 40 partners and its offices are located in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurgaon.

It offers regulatory and transactional advice to telecom and technology players, software and technology companies in India and abroad in areas including outsourcing, e-commerce, technology transactions, IP strategy, media and broadcasting. Its practice areas include films, electronic books and other online content distribution media and also works with cable and broadband companies that are looking to leverage existing cable networks throughout the country to distribute video on demand and triple play services.

Key Clients

It assisted Macnica in its USD 40 million acquisition of a 42% stake in Crowdanalytix Solutions.

Is also assisted Intel in connection with an audit of their existing closed user group facilities as well as their telecommunications infrastructure in connection with their business process outsourcing facilities in India.

Other notable clients include Microsoft Corporation, Gujarat government, Hewlett Packard, Cisco and Vodafone etc.

Contact details are given here.

            Click Above

Nisith Desai Associates

It was founded in 1989 and its offices are located in New Delhi, Mumbai, USA (Silicon Valley), Singapore and Bangalore.

The firm is widely recognised in transactional and regulatory TMT practice. It also provides advice on matters relating to joint venture and investments, e-commerce and telecom regulatory issues and also advises government bodies on fintech and crypto-assets work. Its client base constitutes e-commerce companies, IT and online gaming service providers.

Key Clients

It assisted Unocoin, one of the largest crypto currency exchanges in India, on various regulatory aspects, and in challenging the Reserve Bank of India’s notification asking banks and other regulated entities to disassociate with crypto currency service providers, including exchanges in a writ petition before the High Court claiming that it is violative of the fundamental right to practice any profession, trade or business.

Other notable clients include Viacom 18, Videocon and Sony Productions Inc. etc.

Contact details are given here.

DSK Legal

The firm was established in 2001 with the help of 7 lawyers, and its offices are located in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore. It has a team of over 140 lawyers including 13 partners. It merged with litigation and real estate firm AKS Law Associates in April, 2011 spreading its access in South India.

Its focus areas in the field of TMT include:

Motion Pictures and Television

Talent and celebrity management and brand endorsements,

Music and music celebrity management

Internet and digital media

Publishing

IP Rights management for monetization of IP

Due diligence

Key Clients

The firm represented Salman Khan in the 2002 hit and run case and helped him in getting speedy bail within 5 hours of the sentence being pronounced.

It also Assisted Direct Access India in acquiring life rights for the production of the biopic of Dhyan Chand from his family.

Other notable clients include PVR and Sony Pictures etc.

Contact details are given here.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas

The firm was established in 2015 and is headed by Shardul Shroff who is the executive chairman of the firm along with Pallavi Shroff as the managing partner. Their team consists of over 600 lawyers including 110 partners and its offices are located in New Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata.

It is widely recognised for its transactional TMT work, especially in financing and investment in the technology, media and telecommunication industries. It is also skilled in giving directions related to telecom regulations as well as data protection and licensing. It has worked for international social companies like Facebook and Whatsapp and various e-commerce and mobile companies and cloud service providers.

Key Clients

The firm assisted Walmart in its USD 16 billion acquisition of a majority shareholding in Flipkart. It advised Vodafone India in its merger with Idea Cellular and also represented Zee Entertainment Enterprises in its acquisition of 9x Media Private. 

Other notable clients include One97 Communications and Videocon etc.

Contact details are given here.

Kochhar & Co.

The firm was established in 1994 and has more than 200 lawyers working worldwide. Its offices in India are located in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon and Hyderabad, and it also has four overseas offices in Dubai, Singapore, Atlanta, Jeddah.

The firm deals extensively in matters relating to e-commerce, cloud computing, data privacy and software licensing. It has gained wide recognition for providing advice related to telecom regulations. It has a large client base including household names in the banking and mobile technology space. It also actively works in the field of VoIP implementation and bandwidth sharing.

TMT team of the firm is instructed by Fedex to advise on its courier tracking device, including obtaining approvals from the Department of Telecommunications.

Key Clients

It has assisted Report Bee Edusys in its acquisition by XSEED Education, performing all due diligence related to business transfer, intellectual property and employment agreements.

It has also acted for Akamai in a range of matters concerning data protection, net neutrality and regulatory matters.

Contact details are given here.

J. Sagar Associates

The firm was established in 1991 by Jyoti Sagar. It has more than 300 lawyers and its offices are located in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi.

The firm has provided extensive advice to telecom service providers in relation to voice, data, VPN and value-added services, and telecom and broadcast infrastructure entities and film, television and music production and distribution companies. The firm also advises on legal, policy, commercial and regulatory matters like negotiate transactions and contract compliance and approvals. It also advises celebrities and companies on their brand endorsements/ management contracts.

Key Clients 

It has advised eBay Singapore Services in relation to the sale of its entire stake in Flipkart to Walmart.

It has also assisted Board of Control for Cricket in India in handling assignments for several sporting icons and companies promoted by them.

Contact details are given here.

Khaitan & Co.

The firm was established in 1911 by Late Debi Prasad with the assistance of his brothers Mr. Lakshmi Prasad Khaitan and Bhagwati Prasad Khaitan. It has around 530 lawyers including 115 partners and directors, and its offices are located in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore.

The firm advises its clients in regulatory, policy and compliance issues. It also advises them on information technology, outsourcing, data privacy and protection, and contractual and interconnection agreements. The firm’s assistance in media ranges from broadcasting and endorsement contracts to television show licensing arrangements and joint venture arrangement between media companies.

Key Clients

It has advised Flipkart on the acquisition of its majority stakes by Walmart.

It has also represented NTT Docomo in enforcement proceedings relating to shareholders’ agreement with Tata Sons.

Other notable clients include Birlasoft, National Engineering Industries and Central India Industries etc.

Contact details are given here.

Indus Law

The firm was founded in 2000 and its offices are located in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The firm has experience in advising on e-commerce and fintech-related mandates, including business structuring and regulatory compliance and it also handles related technology disputes as well as transactional TMT mandates. 

Apart from the above areas, it also advises on: 

Commerce & electronic data interchange advice

Conversion from brick and mortar retail to e-retail

Cloud based delivery of software

SAAS, IAAS and PAAS model implementation and software delivery

Drafting, negotiating and reviewing equity subscription and shareholders agreements

Drafting, negotiating and reviewing commercial agreements in relation to technology, media and telecommunication transaction

Regulatory advice and communicating with the regulator or other governmental authorities in un-regulated sectors 

Issues relating to Foreign Direct Investment and Competition Law

Privacy and data protection

Key Clients

The firm assisted PayU Credit in its investment in the fintech company Paysense Pte.

It also assisted Times Internet in organizing the content library for its OTT and video streaming platform MX Player, including advising on content licensing, distribution and integration of other digital platforms.

Other notable clients include Microsoft India, Zee Entertainment Enterprises and Yahoo! India etc.

Contact details are given here.

Advaita Legal

The firm was founded in 2013 and has 40 lawyers and 2 partners. Its offices are located in Delhi and Mumbai.

It is well-known for dealing with investments in the telecoms and technology spheres and in assisting TMT companies entering the India market. It also provides advice on telecoms and technology regulatory issues, licensing and audits. It also deals with matters relating to the OSP environment as well as data privacy and regulatory compliance.

Key Clients

It has assisted Reliance Broadcast Network with regard to music license and end-user agreements relating to a mobile application, including advising on the regulatory framework relevant to the application.

It has also assisted Wipro in licensing issues by the Department of Telecoms for providing services at Delhi Airport.

Contact details are given here.

References

https://www.asialaw.com/firms/j-sagar-associates/f1921#/rankings

https://www.legal500.com/c/india/tmt#table_2272

https://chambers.com/guide/asia-pacific?publicationTypeId=8&practiceAreaId=2015&subsectionTypeId=1&locationId=110

http://chamberpractice.com/recommended/recommend.htm

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[bharatiyamedia-blog]

How Indian-Born Tycoon Chinnakannan Sivasankaran's Luxe Trip Dwelling Acquired Tangled In Canadian Probe

http://tinyurl.com/y4s4xolo There’s little proof to indicate the mansion was purchased with prison proceeds. It seemed to be the coup de grace of a Canadian soiled cash probe into actual property: a sprawling island manor off the coast of Vancouver that the federal government stated was linked on to an alleged prison conspiracy at a state-run Indian financial institution. A six-month investigation commissioned by the province of British Columbia had scoured greater than 1,000,000 land titles for indicators of illicit funds swirling by means of Canada’s costliest housing market. Whereas hundreds of properties had been flagged as suspect, nearly all fell wanting clear prison hyperlinks. Save one, in line with the probe’s closing report. “Most astonishingly,” Legal professional Basic David Eby declared at a press convention when it was offered, “a C$3.5 million ($2.6 million) Gulf Island property acquired with funds allegedly embezzled from a $90 million mortgage fraud in India.” It seems the federal government jumped the gun on that too. There’s little proof to indicate the mansion was purchased with prison proceeds – it was bought by an Indian entrepreneur lengthy earlier than he confronted the accusations of fraud. The tenuous hyperlink is the newest misstep by the provincial authorities after multi-billion greenback laundering estimates it offered that very same day failed to carry as much as scrutiny. Premier John Horgan is below stress to ship solutions to a public outraged that the price of a typical Vancouver house has surpassed 1,000,000 {dollars}. He is blamed the worth surge on what he is referred to as “unchecked” fraud and launched a proper inquiry into cash laundering in a bid to chill the market. The probe exhibits that proving ties to prison exercise is not really easy. A path of paperwork reveals that the property’s been linked since 2005 to a flamboyant Indian-born telecom tycoon, Chinnakannan Sivasankaran, who transferred its possession whereas topic to an asset freeze as collectors chased him by means of courts within the U.Ok., India and the Seychelles. Sivasankaran declined to be interviewed for this story or to reply to the B.C. claims the property could have been bought with embezzled funds. He additionally declined to reply questions on whether or not he supposed to make use of the property to settle a few of his corporations’ money owed. Vancouver’s Soiled Cash Figures: The Smoking Gun That Wasn’t The property in query is glamping for the mega wealthy — a timber-and-glass cabin perched in a 26-acre wooded property with views stretching to Mt. Baker in Washington state. It sits on the southern tip of Salt Spring Island, a halcyon haven of hippies, retirees, and trip properties usually owned by rich People. Land title information checklist the proprietor as Axcel Sunshine Ltd. — a British Virgin Islands-based shell that Indian investigators say is managed by Sivasankaran and was utilized in an alleged fraud at Mumbai-based IDBI Financial institution Ltd. Evergreen Loans In line with India’s Central Bureau of Investigation and U.Ok. courtroom filings, Sivasankaran and his deputies allegedly conspired with former IDBI executives to acquire an $83 million credit score facility for Axcel in 2014 with a purpose to repay loans to different Siva Group corporations that had soured — a observe referred to as “evergreening” that is been frequent amongst Indian banks holding the world’s worst bad-loan ratio. Inside that ignominious group, IDBI has the worst bad-loan ratio. Of the $67 million that was truly disbursed to Axcel, the complete quantity has been accounted for — it was used to clear the dues of six Siva Group corporations, in line with the CBI. In different phrases, that cash does not seem to have ended up in Salt Spring, regardless of the claims by the B.C. authorities. Sivasankaran had already purchased the property lengthy earlier than the alleged mischief at IDBI and when his star was nonetheless rising. Sivasankaran constructed a fortune beginning within the 1980s by anticipating the desires of India’s aspirational shoppers: cut-rate private computer systems, cellphones, a Starbucks-copycat named Barista. Siva Group, the sprawling conglomerate he based, claimed annual revenues of $Three billion at one level. When he bought the Canadian property by means of a unit in 2005, the tycoon was on the cusp of clinching a mega deal — the sale of Indian cell provider Aircel Ltd. to considered one of Malaysia’s richest males for about $1 billion. As his wealth grew, so did his style for the finer issues in life: gold Rolexes, presidential suites on the Ritz-Carlton, and at the least three personal planes, in line with a 2014 Enterprise Normal profile. The Salt Spring property is decidedly modest in comparison with his different actual property sprees just like the “Hammer Time” mansion in California — a 40,000-square-foot enormity with gold-plated gates and a 17-car storage that he purchased from M.C. Hammer when the rapper might not afford to maintain it. Again-Up Yacht “A primary-class flight remains to be public transport,” Sivasankaran advised Singapore’s The New Paper in 2008 after paying $1 million for a 12 months’s membership in an elite membership to complement his transport, with 4 jets and two yachts as “again up.” If the 62-year-old mogul had supposed to cover a few of his huge wealth, he would’ve discovered few locations as welcoming as Canada. The nation has lengthy accepted money of unknown origin from world wide with few questions requested and guarded the anonymity of homeowners as tightly as any tax haven, whereas lending transactions a veneer of respectability — a course of quaintly referred to in worldwide regulation enforcement circles as “snow washing.” Sivasankaran — higher referred to as Siva — did not take full benefit of Canada’s veil of secrecy. He used an eponymous Bermuda-registered shell Siva Ltd. to purchase the property for C$3.6 million in 2005, in line with B.C. property information. His title and signature seem in land title paperwork almost a decade later when the residence was transferred to Axcel. World Chase Sivasankaran has proved slippery previously: Bahraini telecom operator Batelco spent years chasing him by means of courts within the U.Ok., India and the Seychelles — the place in some unspecified time in the future he’d change into a citizen — to pay a declare associated to a failed three way partnership. A London courtroom positioned a worldwide freezing order on Sivasankaran and Siva Ltd.’s property in July 2014. In an obvious violation of that order, inside days, Sivasankaran had listed the Salt Spring property on the market and transferred it in a non-public transaction to Axcel, in line with B.C. property information. The property has been put in the marketplace at the least thrice since 2011 for about C$7 million. It is by no means offered. In the meantime, the head-scratching case involving the Indian financial institution drags on. IDBI filed an $86 million declare in opposition to Axcel, which didn’t repay the mortgage used to repay the opposite Siva Group dues. Axcel has acknowledged it owes the quantity, however its attorneys advised the courtroom that “our shopper doesn’t have the property and/or assets to satisfy the funds due.” “Because the proceedings haven’t concluded, it could be inappropriate to remark or confirm your question in relation to a property in Canada,” Scarmans, the regulation agency representing Axcel and one other Siva Group firm that backed its mortgage, stated in a letter. “Each corporations have confirmed to us, because of your enquiry, that they’re unaware of any cash laundering investigation in Canada or in any other case.” IDBI’s U.Ok. attorneys four Pump Courtroom and TLT LLP, and the workplace of the B.C. lawyer basic declined remark. Wild deer graze outdoors the Salt Spring property because the peal of an unanswered doorbell echoes by means of the woods. Whether or not the property is ever used is anybody’s guess — there is not any neighboring house close by. It will not go down as one of many higher investments by a dealmaker as soon as referred to as considered one of India’s shrewdest. The property is presently assessed at C$3.eight million — adjusted for inflation, lower than what Siva Ltd. paid for it 14 years in the past. It is an ironic twist provided that the cash laundering probe which singled out his property was prompted by outrage on the speedy escalation in actual property costs within the province. Scott Simmons, a realtor on Salt Spring, reckons it’d promote for about C$Three million. He is by no means heard of Sivasankaran and is doubtful {that a} flood of soiled cash has actually fueled housing costs. That stated, throughout his 20 years there as a realtor, occasionally the police appear to swoop in and nab white-collar crime suspects on the sleepy island, he says. “It is like clockwork,” he says. “They assume it is the top of the earth out right here.” (Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.) (function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5&appId=213741912058651";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

[snrassociates-blog]

Rajat Sethi is a Partner at S&R Associates, Mumbai.  His main practice areas are Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Competition/Antitrust, Regulatory, Private Client Practice and General Corporate.  He has advised Fortune 500 corporations, Indian companies and private equity firms on acquisitions and sales, investments and exits, joint ventures and shareholder disputes. Rajat has been recognized as a leading lawyer by Chambers Global for Corporate/M&A; by Chambers Asia Pacific for Corporate/M&A, Private Equity, and Technology, Media, Telecoms; by IFLR1000 for M&A; and by RSG India Report for Corporate M&A and Private Equity.  Rajat previously worked with P&A Law Offices and the chambers of Mr. Arun Jaitley.

[simonconsultancypage]

A Conservative’s Case in Support of Class Actions

In the current political environment, class action lawsuits are under assault, particularly in conservative legal circles. As Joe Patrice put it in an August 30, 2017 Above the Law post (here) , with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek summary of the conservative perspective on class actions, “The only thing every good conservative legal thinker knows is that class actions are greedy money grabs perpetrated by slimy lawyers that help no one and only frustrate the hard-working capitalists making America great again.”

  Given this general outlook among conservatives about class action lawsuits it is all the more surprising and interesting that a conservative legal scholar has come forward with a robust defense of class actions. Vanderbilt Law Professor Brian Fitzpatrick, who clerked for Reagan appointee Dairmuid O’Scannlain on the 9th Circuit and for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has published a paper entitled “Do Class Actions Deter Wrongdoing?” (here), as part of his forthcoming book, “The Conservative Case for Class Actions.” In Fitzpatrick’s view, class actions serve an important role because they deter corporate wrongdoing. Fitzpatrick’s analysis may not only be important for the ongoing debate about class actions in the U.S., but, as discussed further below, it may be even more important for the debate about class actions outside the U.S.

  In summarizing his paper’s conclusions, Fitzpatrick states that the theory of deterrence remains just as strong today as when it was introduced 50 years ago by the ‘classical’ law and economics movement. Moreover, he adds, “although there is not a great deal of empirical evidence to support the theory for class actions, there is some, it is uncontroverted, and it is consistent with the reams and reams of empirical evidence in favor of deterrence for individual lawsuits.”

  In reaching these conclusions, Fitzpatrick distinguishes between “specific deterrence” and “general deterrence.” With the former type of deterrence, a lawsuit deters a particular company from continuing wrongdoing, say, through injunctive relief. With general deterrence, companies in general are deterred from misconduct because of the general threat of litigation. Fitzpatrick acknowledges that “market feedback loops” also deter misbehavior; if a company misbehaves, the customers, employees and shareholders can tell others to go elsewhere. But, Fitzpatrick notes, lawsuits enhance market feedback loops by publicizing the wrongdoing in a way that word of mouth alone does not.

  Among other reasons that critics have questioned class actions’ general deterrence benefits is the view that corporations cannot avoid the misconduct that leads to class actions because corporations cannot predict which of their activities will lead to class actions. In other words, under this theory, class actions target behavior at random; if you can’t predict beforehand why you will be sued, they you can’t change your behavior to avoid the lawsuit.

  Fitzpatrick reviews this class-actions-are-random theory at length, but his ultimate response is that the research shows that the threat of class actions does in fact affect behavior and deter misconduct. As he puts it, “it is not reams and reams of evidence, but there now are several studies, and they span different time periods and involve different types of class actions, and they all say the same thing: class actions deter misconduct.”

  Readers of this blog will be interested to know that three of the studies Fitzpatrick cites relate to the deterrent effect of securities class action lawsuits. The first study examined what happened to after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank insulated foreign companies from American securities class action lawsuits. The study’s authors found that when the threat of class action lawsuits went away, companies disclosed less information to their shareholders than they had before. The study’s authors concluded that the threat of a class action lawsuit had induced the companies to be more forthcoming to their shareholders. (Readers interested in this study’s conclusions can find the paper here.)

  The second securities litigation study examined corporate disclosures for a larger set of companies over the period 1996-2010. The study’s authors compared disclosures by companies with a higher securities class action risk to those with lower risk. The authors identified companies with higher risk using a variety of factors including size, industry, and “a host of other variables.” The authors found that the companies at higher risk of being sued disclosed more information to shareholders, updated their disclosures more often, and rendered those disclosures in more readable language. (Readers interested in seeing this study and learning more about the factors the authors used in identifying companies a higher risk of securities litigation can found the authors’ paper here. )

  The third study looked at what influenced corporate decisions to misrepresent corporate earnings during the period 1997 to 2008. The study’s authors found that the fact that a company got sued in a securities class action lawsuit for earnings manipulation discouraged other companies in the same industry or geographic region from manipulating their own earnings, and concluded that class actions deter behavior. (Readers can find this report of this research study here.)

  In summarizing the findings of these studies, Fitzpatrick noted that “although these studies of class actions and deterrence are not numerous, they are unanimous: class action lawsuits generate general deterrence.” Moreover, he noted these finding are consistent with what more extensive research has shown to be true with respect to lawsuits other than class action lawsuits, that is, that the threat of a lawsuit deters misconduct.

  Fitzpatrick’s analysis is all the more interesting because of his impeccable conservative credentials. In discussing Fitzpatrick’s analysis and showing how it is in fact consistent with conservative principles, Alison Frankel, in an August 29, 2017 post on her On the Case blog about Fitzpatrick’s analysis (here), says the following: “Fitzpatrick argues that if you accept the proposition that corporations should not be allowed to extract even small amounts of money from hoodwinked customers, then class actions are actually a conservative way to make sure they don’t. The other options are to provide no vehicle to litigate small-dollar claims, thus allowing businesses to steal from customers, or to rely on the government to enforce corporate honesty. I suggested that perhaps we can rely on the market to punish deceptive businesses; Fitzpatrick said class actions act as a megaphone to amplify warnings to consumers.”

  Fitzpatrick’s analysis is interesting in the context of the current and ongoing debate within the U.S. about the social value of class action lawsuits. The analysis may be even more interesting in the context of the emerging debate in countries outside the U.S., as a number of different countries move toward adopting class action or other collective action mechanisms. For example, in 2013, the EU promulgated a mandate directing member countries to adopt procedural mechanisms for collective redress, primarily focused on consumer claims (as discussed at length here).  And as I have noted in numerous prior posts on this site (most recently here), a number of other countries are adopting mechanisms for collective investor actions.

  As these other countries have wrestled with the issues surrounding the adoption of class action or other collective redress mechanisms, the justifications provided have primarily focused on the value for these kinds of mechanisms to produce litigation efficiency or to provide compensation for victims. Fitzpatrick is in fact disdainful of these justifications for class action remedies. As he puts it, “it is unlikely that any litigation efficiency is gained because there would be no individual litigation at all in the absence of class action.” He also put little weight on the value of class action mechanisms to provide compensation; he notes that “the class action is not known for its success at delivering compensation to class members; sometimes it does it well … but in the run-of-the-mill case, only a small percentage of victims are made whole.”

  I am not sure I would be so quick to dismiss the litigation efficiency argument in support of class actions. In this regard, I would point to the Deutsche Telecom litigation in Germany. When the company was hit with an accounting scandal in the first decade of this century, investors filed over 13,000 lawsuits against the company, which overwhelmed the courts. As discussed here, the German legislature responded by adopting the Capital Market Investors’ Model Proceeding Act (or KapMuG), which provides for a representative proceeding to decide disputed issues affecting similar claims. The entire point of the KapMuG was to impose efficiency constraints on a set of proceedings that otherwise would be extraordinarily inefficient.

  I am also not sure I would dismiss the compensation justification either. Here, I would point to the Satyam scandal, in which investors who bought Satyam securities in both New York and Mumbai were injured. The difference between these two sets of investors is that the investors who purchased their securities in New York were part of a class action lawsuit that resulted in a $125 million settlement. The investors who purchased their shares in Mumbai received nothing, an outcome that contributed to the Indian legislature’s adoption, in clause 245 of the Companies Act of 2013, of a class action mechanism.

  But while I believe that the efficiency and compensation justifications for class action litigation arguably have greater merit than perhaps does Fitzpatrick, I am struck by his conclusion that the class action mechanism can be defended for its deterrent effects. The debate on these issues in the U.S. is likely to go on, and it is as likely to be a political debate as it is an economic or social justice debate. Fitzpatrick’s analysis may be even more informative for countries outside the U.S. as they struggle with the question about whether or not to adopt collective redress mechanisms. These other countries have tended to focus on the litigation efficiency and compensation justifications for class action litigation. Fitzpatrick’s analysis supporting the conclusion that class action litigation deters misconduct could be important for these other countries to consider as they debate these issues, and could provide additional justification for the adoption of class action mechanisms.

The post A Conservative’s Case in Support of Class Actions appeared first on The D&O Diary.

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[lawfirm-elixir]

Elixir Legal Services has an expert attorney team dealing in Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Law in India, and represented clients, in legal proceedings involving the Indian telecommunications regulator and appellate body, the information and broadcasting ministry, and High Courts and the Supreme Court of India regarding telecom policy matters.

[golicit]

A Conservative’s Case in Support of Class Actions

In the current political environment, class action lawsuits are under assault, particularly in conservative legal circles. As Joe Patrice put it in an August 30, 2017 Above the Law post (here) , with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek summary of the conservative perspective on class actions, “The only thing every good conservative legal thinker knows is that class actions are greedy money grabs perpetrated by slimy lawyers that help no one and only frustrate the hard-working capitalists making America great again.”

  Given this general outlook among conservatives about class action lawsuits it is all the more surprising and interesting that a conservative legal scholar has come forward with a robust defense of class actions. Vanderbilt Law Professor Brian Fitzpatrick, who clerked for Reagan appointee Dairmuid O’Scannlain on the 9th Circuit and for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has published a paper entitled “Do Class Actions Deter Wrongdoing?” (here), as part of his forthcoming book, “The Conservative Case for Class Actions.” In Fitzpatrick’s view, class actions serve an important role because they deter corporate wrongdoing. Fitzpatrick’s analysis may not only be important for the ongoing debate about class actions in the U.S., but, as discussed further below, it may be even more important for the debate about class actions outside the U.S.

  In summarizing his paper’s conclusions, Fitzpatrick states that the theory of deterrence remains just as strong today as when it was introduced 50 years ago by the ‘classical’ law and economics movement. Moreover, he adds, “although there is not a great deal of empirical evidence to support the theory for class actions, there is some, it is uncontroverted, and it is consistent with the reams and reams of empirical evidence in favor of deterrence for individual lawsuits.”

  In reaching these conclusions, Fitzpatrick distinguishes between “specific deterrence” and “general deterrence.” With the former type of deterrence, a lawsuit deters a particular company from continuing wrongdoing, say, through injunctive relief. With general deterrence, companies in general are deterred from misconduct because of the general threat of litigation. Fitzpatrick acknowledges that “market feedback loops” also deter misbehavior; if a company misbehaves, the customers, employees and shareholders can tell others to go elsewhere. But, Fitzpatrick notes, lawsuits enhance market feedback loops by publicizing the wrongdoing in a way that word of mouth alone does not.

  Among other reasons that critics have questioned class actions’ general deterrence benefits is the view that corporations cannot avoid the misconduct that leads to class actions because corporations cannot predict which of their activities will lead to class actions. In other words, under this theory, class actions target behavior at random; if you can’t predict beforehand why you will be sued, they you can’t change your behavior to avoid the lawsuit.

  Fitzpatrick reviews this class-actions-are-random theory at length, but his ultimate response is that the research shows that the threat of class actions does in fact affect behavior and deter misconduct. As he puts it, “it is not reams and reams of evidence, but there now are several studies, and they span different time periods and involve different types of class actions, and they all say the same thing: class actions deter misconduct.”

  Readers of this blog will be interested to know that three of the studies Fitzpatrick cites relate to the deterrent effect of securities class action lawsuits. The first study examined what happened to after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank insulated foreign companies from American securities class action lawsuits. The study’s authors found that when the threat of class action lawsuits went away, companies disclosed less information to their shareholders than they had before. The study’s authors concluded that the threat of a class action lawsuit had induced the companies to be more forthcoming to their shareholders. (Readers interested in this study’s conclusions can find the paper here.)

  The second securities litigation study examined corporate disclosures for a larger set of companies over the period 1996-2010. The study’s authors compared disclosures by companies with a higher securities class action risk to those with lower risk. The authors identified companies with higher risk using a variety of factors including size, industry, and “a host of other variables.” The authors found that the companies at higher risk of being sued disclosed more information to shareholders, updated their disclosures more often, and rendered those disclosures in more readable language. (Readers interested in seeing this study and learning more about the factors the authors used in identifying companies a higher risk of securities litigation can found the authors’ paper here. )

  The third study looked at what influenced corporate decisions to misrepresent corporate earnings during the period 1997 to 2008. The study’s authors found that the fact that a company got sued in a securities class action lawsuit for earnings manipulation discouraged other companies in the same industry or geographic region from manipulating their own earnings, and concluded that class actions deter behavior. (Readers can find this report of this research study here.)

  In summarizing the findings of these studies, Fitzpatrick noted that “although these studies of class actions and deterrence are not numerous, they are unanimous: class action lawsuits generate general deterrence.” Moreover, he noted these finding are consistent with what more extensive research has shown to be true with respect to lawsuits other than class action lawsuits, that is, that the threat of a lawsuit deters misconduct.

  Fitzpatrick’s analysis is all the more interesting because of his impeccable conservative credentials. In discussing Fitzpatrick’s analysis and showing how it is in fact consistent with conservative principles, Alison Frankel, in an August 29, 2017 post on her On the Case blog about Fitzpatrick’s analysis (here), says the following: “Fitzpatrick argues that if you accept the proposition that corporations should not be allowed to extract even small amounts of money from hoodwinked customers, then class actions are actually a conservative way to make sure they don’t. The other options are to provide no vehicle to litigate small-dollar claims, thus allowing businesses to steal from customers, or to rely on the government to enforce corporate honesty. I suggested that perhaps we can rely on the market to punish deceptive businesses; Fitzpatrick said class actions act as a megaphone to amplify warnings to consumers.”

  Fitzpatrick’s analysis is interesting in the context of the current and ongoing debate within the U.S. about the social value of class action lawsuits. The analysis may be even more interesting in the context of the emerging debate in countries outside the U.S., as a number of different countries move toward adopting class action or other collective action mechanisms. For example, in 2013, the EU promulgated a mandate directing member countries to adopt procedural mechanisms for collective redress, primarily focused on consumer claims (as discussed at length here).  And as I have noted in numerous prior posts on this site (most recently here), a number of other countries are adopting mechanisms for collective investor actions.

  As these other countries have wrestled with the issues surrounding the adoption of class action or other collective redress mechanisms, the justifications provided have primarily focused on the value for these kinds of mechanisms to produce litigation efficiency or to provide compensation for victims. Fitzpatrick is in fact disdainful of these justifications for class action remedies. As he puts it, “it is unlikely that any litigation efficiency is gained because there would be no individual litigation at all in the absence of class action.” He also put little weight on the value of class action mechanisms to provide compensation; he notes that “the class action is not known for its success at delivering compensation to class members; sometimes it does it well … but in the run-of-the-mill case, only a small percentage of victims are made whole.”

  I am not sure I would be so quick to dismiss the litigation efficiency argument in support of class actions. In this regard, I would point to the Deutsche Telecom litigation in Germany. When the company was hit with an accounting scandal in the first decade of this century, investors filed over 13,000 lawsuits against the company, which overwhelmed the courts. As discussed here, the German legislature responded by adopting the Capital Market Investors’ Model Proceeding Act (or KapMuG), which provides for a representative proceeding to decide disputed issues affecting similar claims. The entire point of the KapMuG was to impose efficiency constraints on a set of proceedings that otherwise would be extraordinarily inefficient.

  I am also not sure I would dismiss the compensation justification either. Here, I would point to the Satyam scandal, in which investors who bought Satyam securities in both New York and Mumbai were injured. The difference between these two sets of investors is that the investors who purchased their securities in New York were part of a class action lawsuit that resulted in a $125 million settlement. The investors who purchased their shares in Mumbai received nothing, an outcome that contributed to the Indian legislature’s adoption, in clause 245 of the Companies Act of 2013, of a class action mechanism.

  But while I believe that the efficiency and compensation justifications for class action litigation arguably have greater merit than perhaps does Fitzpatrick, I am struck by his conclusion that the class action mechanism can be defended for its deterrent effects. The debate on these issues in the U.S. is likely to go on, and it is as likely to be a political debate as it is an economic or social justice debate. Fitzpatrick’s analysis may be even more informative for countries outside the U.S. as they struggle with the question about whether or not to adopt collective redress mechanisms. These other countries have tended to focus on the litigation efficiency and compensation justifications for class action litigation. Fitzpatrick’s analysis supporting the conclusion that class action litigation deters misconduct could be important for these other countries to consider as they debate these issues, and could provide additional justification for the adoption of class action mechanisms.

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A Conservative’s Case in Support of Class Actions

In the current political environment, class action lawsuits are under assault, particularly in conservative legal circles. As Joe Patrice put it in an August 30, 2017 Above the Law post (here) , with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek summary of the conservative perspective on class actions, “The only thing every good conservative legal thinker knows is that class actions are greedy money grabs perpetrated by slimy lawyers that help no one and only frustrate the hard-working capitalists making America great again.”

  Given this general outlook among conservatives about class action lawsuits it is all the more surprising and interesting that a conservative legal scholar has come forward with a robust defense of class actions. Vanderbilt Law Professor Brian Fitzpatrick, who clerked for Reagan appointee Dairmuid O’Scannlain on the 9th Circuit and for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has published a paper entitled “Do Class Actions Deter Wrongdoing?” (here), as part of his forthcoming book, “The Conservative Case for Class Actions.” In Fitzpatrick’s view, class actions serve an important role because they deter corporate wrongdoing. Fitzpatrick’s analysis may not only be important for the ongoing debate about class actions in the U.S., but, as discussed further below, it may be even more important for the debate about class actions outside the U.S.

  In summarizing his paper’s conclusions, Fitzpatrick states that the theory of deterrence remains just as strong today as when it was introduced 50 years ago by the ‘classical’ law and economics movement. Moreover, he adds, “although there is not a great deal of empirical evidence to support the theory for class actions, there is some, it is uncontroverted, and it is consistent with the reams and reams of empirical evidence in favor of deterrence for individual lawsuits.”

  In reaching these conclusions, Fitzpatrick distinguishes between “specific deterrence” and “general deterrence.” With the former type of deterrence, a lawsuit deters a particular company from continuing wrongdoing, say, through injunctive relief. With general deterrence, companies in general are deterred from misconduct because of the general threat of litigation. Fitzpatrick acknowledges that “market feedback loops” also deter misbehavior; if a company misbehaves, the customers, employees and shareholders can tell others to go elsewhere. But, Fitzpatrick notes, lawsuits enhance market feedback loops by publicizing the wrongdoing in a way that word of mouth alone does not.

  Among other reasons that critics have questioned class actions’ general deterrence benefits is the view that corporations cannot avoid the misconduct that leads to class actions because corporations cannot predict which of their activities will lead to class actions. In other words, under this theory, class actions target behavior at random; if you can’t predict beforehand why you will be sued, they you can’t change your behavior to avoid the lawsuit.

  Fitzpatrick reviews this class-actions-are-random theory at length, but his ultimate response is that the research shows that the threat of class actions does in fact affect behavior and deter misconduct. As he puts it, “it is not reams and reams of evidence, but there now are several studies, and they span different time periods and involve different types of class actions, and they all say the same thing: class actions deter misconduct.”

  Readers of this blog will be interested to know that three of the studies Fitzpatrick cites relate to the deterrent effect of securities class action lawsuits. The first study examined what happened to after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank insulated foreign companies from American securities class action lawsuits. The study’s authors found that when the threat of class action lawsuits went away, companies disclosed less information to their shareholders than they had before. The study’s authors concluded that the threat of a class action lawsuit had induced the companies to be more forthcoming to their shareholders. (Readers interested in this study’s conclusions can find the paper here.)

  The second securities litigation study examined corporate disclosures for a larger set of companies over the period 1996-2010. The study’s authors compared disclosures by companies with a higher securities class action risk to those with lower risk. The authors identified companies with higher risk using a variety of factors including size, industry, and “a host of other variables.” The authors found that the companies at higher risk of being sued disclosed more information to shareholders, updated their disclosures more often, and rendered those disclosures in more readable language. (Readers interested in seeing this study and learning more about the factors the authors used in identifying companies a higher risk of securities litigation can found the authors’ paper here. )

  The third study looked at what influenced corporate decisions to misrepresent corporate earnings during the period 1997 to 2008. The study’s authors found that the fact that a company got sued in a securities class action lawsuit for earnings manipulation discouraged other companies in the same industry or geographic region from manipulating their own earnings, and concluded that class actions deter behavior. (Readers can find this report of this research study here.)

  In summarizing the findings of these studies, Fitzpatrick noted that “although these studies of class actions and deterrence are not numerous, they are unanimous: class action lawsuits generate general deterrence.” Moreover, he noted these finding are consistent with what more extensive research has shown to be true with respect to lawsuits other than class action lawsuits, that is, that the threat of a lawsuit deters misconduct.

  Fitzpatrick’s analysis is all the more interesting because of his impeccable conservative credentials. In discussing Fitzpatrick’s analysis and showing how it is in fact consistent with conservative principles, Alison Frankel, in an August 29, 2017 post on her On the Case blog about Fitzpatrick’s analysis (here), says the following: “Fitzpatrick argues that if you accept the proposition that corporations should not be allowed to extract even small amounts of money from hoodwinked customers, then class actions are actually a conservative way to make sure they don’t. The other options are to provide no vehicle to litigate small-dollar claims, thus allowing businesses to steal from customers, or to rely on the government to enforce corporate honesty. I suggested that perhaps we can rely on the market to punish deceptive businesses; Fitzpatrick said class actions act as a megaphone to amplify warnings to consumers.”

  Fitzpatrick’s analysis is interesting in the context of the current and ongoing debate within the U.S. about the social value of class action lawsuits. The analysis may be even more interesting in the context of the emerging debate in countries outside the U.S., as a number of different countries move toward adopting class action or other collective action mechanisms. For example, in 2013, the EU promulgated a mandate directing member countries to adopt procedural mechanisms for collective redress, primarily focused on consumer claims (as discussed at length here).  And as I have noted in numerous prior posts on this site (most recently here), a number of other countries are adopting mechanisms for collective investor actions.

  As these other countries have wrestled with the issues surrounding the adoption of class action or other collective redress mechanisms, the justifications provided have primarily focused on the value for these kinds of mechanisms to produce litigation efficiency or to provide compensation for victims. Fitzpatrick is in fact disdainful of these justifications for class action remedies. As he puts it, “it is unlikely that any litigation efficiency is gained because there would be no individual litigation at all in the absence of class action.” He also put little weight on the value of class action mechanisms to provide compensation; he notes that “the class action is not known for its success at delivering compensation to class members; sometimes it does it well … but in the run-of-the-mill case, only a small percentage of victims are made whole.”

  I am not sure I would be so quick to dismiss the litigation efficiency argument in support of class actions. In this regard, I would point to the Deutsche Telecom litigation in Germany. When the company was hit with an accounting scandal in the first decade of this century, investors filed over 13,000 lawsuits against the company, which overwhelmed the courts. As discussed here, the German legislature responded by adopting the Capital Market Investors’ Model Proceeding Act (or KapMuG), which provides for a representative proceeding to decide disputed issues affecting similar claims. The entire point of the KapMuG was to impose efficiency constraints on a set of proceedings that otherwise would be extraordinarily inefficient.

  I am also not sure I would dismiss the compensation justification either. Here, I would point to the Satyam scandal, in which investors who bought Satyam securities in both New York and Mumbai were injured. The difference between these two sets of investors is that the investors who purchased their securities in New York were part of a class action lawsuit that resulted in a $125 million settlement. The investors who purchased their shares in Mumbai received nothing, an outcome that contributed to the Indian legislature’s adoption, in clause 245 of the Companies Act of 2013, of a class action mechanism.

  But while I believe that the efficiency and compensation justifications for class action litigation arguably have greater merit than perhaps does Fitzpatrick, I am struck by his conclusion that the class action mechanism can be defended for its deterrent effects. The debate on these issues in the U.S. is likely to go on, and it is as likely to be a political debate as it is an economic or social justice debate. Fitzpatrick’s analysis may be even more informative for countries outside the U.S. as they struggle with the question about whether or not to adopt collective redress mechanisms. These other countries have tended to focus on the litigation efficiency and compensation justifications for class action litigation. Fitzpatrick’s analysis supporting the conclusion that class action litigation deters misconduct could be important for these other countries to consider as they debate these issues, and could provide additional justification for the adoption of class action mechanisms.

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