VAT Legal || Expertise

Corporate

India has a complicated and detailed exchange control regime. We have extensive experience working with foreign investors on their India strategy and also guiding them through the regulatory framework for foreign investment – whether this relates to acquisitions or setting up of greenfield or joint ventures. We advise corporations through all stages of the business life cycle, including but not limited to choosing the best suitable structure, ensuring ongoing legal compliances to working through dissolution.

Banking and Finance

We work on a myriad of matters like securitisation of various types of loans, including mortgages, vehicle finance, corporate and personal loans, hire purchase, and leases as well as debt restructuring, including restructurings under the joint lender forums, corporate debt restructuring mechanism, court-approved schemes of arrangement, or negotiated settlements. We also work on Bankruptcy and recovery proceedings and security enforcement, both contentious and non-contentious.

Industrial Disputes and M & A

In India, the industries and HR landscape include a plethora of central as well as state specific laws and regulations which are constantly evolving and companies are required to be aware and compliant with such laws that are applicable to them. VAT Legal extensively works toward the easy solution of such problems.

Economic Offences

Today, economical or financial crimes have become an extremely serious problem for businesses across the country. The main reasons for these are the fluctuating financial conditions and complicated regulatory regime. These problems often involve high stakes and can evolve from breaches by employees or non-compliance of civil or criminal obligations leading to vast challenges. VAT Legal deals with matters concerning insider trading, bribery, employment code breaches, investment frauds, fraudulent siphoning of money, etc. We have provided legal solutions and served multinational corporations, companies, institutions, and individuals.

We have been involved in several white collar crimes i.e. economic offence cases against top-level management in various organisations and also assisted foreign businesses operating in the country with false criminal cases filed against them to settle business disputes. We handle white collar crimes more particularly for economic offences in the High Court of Madras and other courts of law.

Real Estate Disputes

Property development in every state is a prominent market where navigation in complex issues is a need for the new entrants as well as the already existing developers, investors, builders, lenders, corporates, etc. We at VAT Legal provide market leading advisory services and due diligence across a range of services which involves Real Estate transaction.

We also advise on the stamp duties, title verification, licensing, regulatory approvals from Government and statutory authorities as well as registration based on the applicable local laws.We regularly represent our clients before various authorities in matters relating to land misuse disputes, land acquisition proceedings, the sale of property, leasing matters, house tax issues, and municipal rules and bylaws. Our clients trust us to manage, lead and resolve the intricacies of their transactions and disputes, synthesizing legal and commercial knowledge to provide them with counsel that translates into successful outcomes.

Family Law

Matters involving a person’s familial relationships are dealt with paramount sensitivity, empathy and expertise by us. We regularly advise on family law matters including succession, wills, family settlements, partition, paternity, guardianship, juvenile delinquency, custody, child support, adoption, and divorce. We offer our support and expertise to our innumerable clients in varied ways and manner including counselling sessions in our offices, managing court cases, negotiating/ mediating and settling disputes outside courts. Our expertise in this space includes and extends to partition suits, suits related to family disputes, counselling clients on various personal issues such as Will, Marriage Reconciliation, Divorce, Custody, etc.

Intellectual Property Rights

We assist our clients to identify, protect and leverage their intellectual property (IP) thereby increasing their value and ensuring that critical business assets are securely protected and efficiently exploited. Our services offered include registration and prosecution of Trademarks, Designs, Copyright, Geographical Indications, among others; IP due diligence and audits; assistance in negotiating transaction documents including licensing /assignment of IP; identification and protection of IP in the arts, publication, film, live events, digital media; matters concerning domain names; advising on IP infringement and passing off; assistance in dispute resolution (arbitration and litigation), sending and responding to cease and desist notices and devising strategies for both Indian and cross border dispute resolution mechanisms.

Information Technology / Cybercrime

We advise our clients on legal and regulatory matters for protection of data and information managed and exchanged on a digital platform. Our services offered include drafting and negotiating software license and distribution agreements, software development agreements, technology transfer agreements, among others; drafting, reviewing and advising on legal issues relating to website acceptable privacy policies, disclaimers and terms of use; advice on legal issues relating to email and internet risk management, data and systems security, data mining and data protection, digital signatures, hacking, and cybercrimes; and advising on data protection and privacy issues.

Litigation

Our dedicated litigation practice team has gained experience in the defence and prosecution of civil and criminal lawsuits. We have a large number of litigators with extensive experience in representing clients before various courts, tribunals and adjudicatory bodies in India. These include the Supreme Court of India, High Court of various states and District and Sub-ordinate Courts. Specialized tribunals / adjudicatory bodies include the Debt Recovery Tribunal, National Company Law Tribunal, Consumer Courts and Competition Commission. We work at evaluating business disputes from the early stages, to determine if litigation can be avoided, how it can be resolved as economically and efficiently as possible, with cost control considerations being deployed at all times, from the smallest case to the largest. Our primary interest lies in the development of a litigation strategy that is cost-effective yet geared towards obtaining favourable results in all litigation matters.

Corporate and Regulatory Matters

We assist a broad array of business enterprises which seek advice regarding organizational, operational and transactional matters. We advise clients on a broad spectrum of corporate and commercial work and assist them on finding viable and sustainable solutions, in light of industry specific focus and clients’ requirements. We have adopted a pragmatic and multi-dimensional approach, whereby we have successfully advised our clients in complex transactions and have developed long-standing relationships with our clients. We advise clients on setting up of different structures such as entrepreneurial start-up enterprises, partnerships, closely held companies and publicly owned companies ranging from local and regional businesses to large multinational conglomerates. We have in-depth expertise in advising clients on various corporate governance issues as well as on compliance related matters across various industries. Our advice is a comprehensive blend of business strategy, in-depth knowledge of relevant industry and cross border tax minimization.

Taxation Laws

VAT Legal’s expertise in income tax makes it one of the most recognized direct tax law firms in Chennai. We have a team with experience, expertise, and commitment to attaining the best possible goal for the client. We provide advisory and litigations services to huge corporates for tax planning, transactional services and for a plethora of legal issues. We have a team of highly experienced advocates handling and arguing matters before various forums such as ITAT, Authority for Advance Rulings (Income-tax), High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. Our team works closely with the CEO, CFO, Finance, and Accounts team of the companies to ensure a holistic approach towards reaching the desired result. We understand the implications of every transaction and advise clients on how to minimize the risk of future litigation in income tax. We also have a thriving practice for Corporate Tax, Transfer Pricing, and International Taxation and we advise a number of international clients for their businesses in India.

Entertainment and Media Laws

With the evolution of media and entertainment industry, our advocates specialising in the field of media and entertainment primarily focus on advising clients on all legal and regulatory matters including drafting and negotiation of various agreements for development, production, publishing, distribution, use and exploitation of audio-visual materials in all forms, traditional and contemporary i.e. TV, print, internet and radio. Our clientele includes leading celebrities, sportsmen, production houses, print media, IT companies, start-ups and so on. In view of the dynamic nature of the industry and its unique complexities, we focus on providing practical contemporary advice to our clients.

Employment Laws

The firm advises both domestic and international clients on the complex regulatory and legal aspects of employment and labour law in order to enable full compliance with all the applicable laws. We handle the entire gamut of employment matters including contracts, employee stock options, benefits, disciplinary action, and termination.

Dispute Resolution

We have profound expertise and diverse capabilities in handling complex and multi-jurisdictional corporate commercial disputes. Our Alternative Dispute Resolution team has significant experience in handling domestic and international arbitration including preliminary forms of dispute resolution, such as conciliation and mediation. Our advice extends across diverse sectors such as banking and finance, commercial, construction and engineering, corporate, employment, financial services, restructuring, insolvency, trusts and succession and probate matters. Our emphasis is on aligning dispute resolution strategy with the commercial interests of our clients. We understand time is of essence and our objective is to provide effective remedy efficiently.

Our dispute resolution lawyers have rich experience in cross border financial and investment disputes before courts and arbitral tribunals. We regularly work with lawyers in other jurisdictions to provide a comprehensive cross border strategy for cross border disputes. A large part of our clientele comprises of large multinational corporations, leading domestic corporate houses, international financial institutions and funds. In addition, we advise clients on statutory and regulatory inquiries, as well as criminal proceedings arising out of economic offences. It has always been our endeavour to prevent the occurrence of disputes by ensuring preparation of documentation addressing contemplated risk exposure; in cases of contractual and non-contractual disputes.

Energy and Infrastructure Resources Law

VAT Legal understands the commercial, strategic, technical, geographical and political factors that shape and impact these industries, as well as the business issues and risks inherent when working in these sectors. In a market with ever-changing policies, the management of risk and creation of value to ensure the bankability of projects requires not only exceptional contract drafting skills but also a vigorous understanding of the law and regulations affecting a project, together with deep industry knowledge.