The Company

Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan (L&S) is one of India’s leading law firms specializing in Taxation, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), International Trade and Corporate & Commercial Laws. The firm provides litigation, consulting and advisory services to clients including Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Founded by Mr. V. Lakshmikumaran in the year 1985, L&S has six offices in India. An experienced litigator, Mr. V. Lakshmikumaran has been recognized as “Asia-Pacific’s Leading Tax Lawyer” by the Asia Law for his vision, ethics, values and exemplary understanding of tax laws. The firm has also been recognized as a “Tier-1 Tax Firm” in the Tax Directors Handbook, Asia Law, Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners.

The Tax team comprises of experienced lawyers, chartered accountants and finance experts, who handle some of the most complex income tax, excise, customs, transfer pricing, tax-efficientM&A, corporate taxation and expatriate taxation issues. Traditional tax planning is not sufficient for businesses in the light of changing Indian tax laws. India’s evolving tax regime calls for tax planning which should be supported by the perspectives, both of litigators and of the revenue authorities. This requires an expertise beyond the domain of consultants that lack these perspectives. Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan offers unique synergies in litigation and consulting, and direct and indirect taxation ensuring holistic tax solutions for its clients. The tax litigation practice of the firm is renowned for active litigation services by several partners. Presently, Lakshmi Kumaran&Sridharan has 215 practitioners including lawyers, accountants, ex-government officers, technocrats and industry experts.

The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) team, headed by Mr. R. Parthasarathy and Mr. Sanjay Kumar, has handled some of the most complex patent issues for multinational and Indian companies. L&S guides clients at every stage of patent protection including activities like drafting, filing and prosecution. The Patent Litigation and Prosecution team and the copyright, trademarks and plant variety protection teams consist of lawyers, scientists and technologists with several years of experience and sound understanding of the Indian and western IP laws.

The International Trade team has a stellar reputation for its international trade related work in areas like Anti-dumping, Subsidies, Safeguards and other WTO agreements. Headed by Mr. S. Seetharaman, the team has successfully represented over 250 clients from India, US, EU, China, Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea in over 150 Anti-dumping investigations.

To provide assistance in establishment and operation of business entities in India, the Corporate and Commercial Laws Division of L&S guides at every stage through its bouquet of services. This Division, supported by vastly experienced attorneys, provides legal advisory, commercial litigation, arbitration, legal documentation, regulatory litigation and due diligence services. Areas of expertise include joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, infrastructure, project finance, competition and anti-trust and real estate.

Practice Areas

Taxation
> Tax Advisory, Litigation & Consulting
> Tax Compliance Review

IPR
> Patent Litigation and Patent Prosecution
> IP Management and IP Licensing
> Trademarks and Copyrights
> Plant Variety Protection (PVP)
> Freedom to Operate (FTO) Analysis

International Trade (WTO Laws)

Corporate & Commercial Laws

Competitive Advantage

> Competency in Indian tax laws & technology
> Litigation & consulting synergies
> Partners having experience of working in the Indian Government
> Domain knowledge of the professionals

Innovations

> Adaptive case and workflow management solution [GOLD Award winner cosponsored by Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) under Legal and Courts category at the 2011 Global Awards for Excellence in Adaptive Case Management (ACM)]
> IP Strategy formulation & implementation
> Tax compliance reviews