Member Profiles

ZARIR BHARUCHA, a third-generation lawyer is a leading dispute resolution professional in India, with over 20 years’ experience and previously worked at magic circle firm, Linklaters in London. Zarir has acted in a number of ground breaking cases in the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court of India and regularly litigates international disputes in courts and tribunals throughout India. Zarir is also nominated by the LCIA as an arbitrator on India related disputes and has frequently given expert evidence in foreign arbitration and before courts outside India. Zarir frequently contributes articles for the trade and legal press, participates in policy contribution and on committees for new legislation (particularly in the marine area) and is a regular speaker at a number of specialist conferences such as the IBA.

Aliff, who was a founding partner in another law firm in Mumbai, merged his practice with ALMT Legal in 2003 to enhance the Firm's tax and M&A practice. Aliff is listed among the “Top 100 Private Practice Lawyers in India” by India Business Law Journal in 2018-19, 2020-2021, 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24. Aliff’s tax experience includes advising on cross border tax structuring and issues such as creation of permanent establishment, obligations in relation to withholding tax, transfer pricing, characterization of software payments etc. and more recently on the two pillar approach and India’s stand on issues such as digital tax and nomads. Aliff also advises on indirect tax issues particularly GST and customs issues for various international and domestic clients. Aliff has also been actively involved in various high stakes direct tax litigation matters handled by the firm involving international tax issues such as indirect transfers, transfer pricing disputes and mutual agreement procedures. The Tax Directors Handbook has highly recommended Aliff for his tax practice. Aliff has authored articles for international publications including for the IBFD and been a panelist at various international tax and M&A conferences and seminars. Aliff’s M&A and corporate practice is mainly focused on domestic and cross-border transactional work for domestic and international multinational companies and private equity funds. He is highly regarded for his drafting and negotiation skills in a complex transaction as well as his practical approach towards resolving many structuring and regulatory issues within the framework of the law. Aliff also advises several clients in relation to certain capital markets transactions including registration of and investments by foreign portfolio investors as well as primary and secondary investments by a range of investors in publicly listed companies. Besides his tax and M&A practice, Aliff has helped develop a thriving employment law practice for the Firm and assists several multinational clients on a wide spectrum of employment law issues. In addition to structuring contracts, drafting employment policies and procedures for clients, including issues relating to sexual harassment and anti-sexual harassment policies, and advising on social security schemes, Aliff has also advised on implementing terminations, both as a reduction in workforce as well as termination for misconduct, the enforceability of post termination obligations as well as dispute resolutions. Aliff has also conducted training workshops in companies in relation to effectively dealing with sexual harassment complaints, anti - bribery, data privacy and workplace ethics. Aliff has been consistently recognized as one of India’s leading lawyers by www.almtlegal.com global legal publications like Legal 500, Asia Law Profiles, IFLR 1000 and Chambers & Partners, who has specifically recommended Aliff for his tax, corporate and M&A, employment practice. As examples, Aliff is featured in Asian Legal Business magazine’s 'A-List of India's Super 50 Lawyers’ in 2023 and 2020. Asia Pacific Legal 500 2024 Edition has featured Aliff in ‘Hall of Fame’ for his tax practice and has recognised Aliff as a ‘Leading Lawyer’ for Labour and Employment. Legal 500 India 2024 awards shortlisted Aliff for ‘Tax Lawyer of the Year’ and ‘Labour and Employment Lawyer of the Year’. Legal Era 2022 Rankings has recognised Aliff as ‘Leading Lawyer Champion’ for Tax. Legal Era 2024 India awards has awarded Aliff as ‘Lawyer of the Year – Labour and Employment’ and nominated Aliff for ‘Lawyer of the Year – M&A’. Asia Law Profiles 2023 Edition has recognised Aliff as ‘Distinguished Practitioner’ for Corporate M&A and Labour and Employment. IFLR 1000 2023 Edition recognises Aliff as ‘Highly Regarded Lawyer’ for M&A and Private Equity. LawWiser has featured Aliff in ‘Lawyers Power League 2023 – 100 Leading Law Firm Professionals’ list. Professional appointments and activities Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa, India (1988) Law Society of England and Wales (1992) One of India's representative authors for the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation (IBFD) Member of the Indian Chapter of the International Fiscal Association (IFA) Qualifications Bachelor of Laws – 1988 University of Bombay (was awarded the gold medal for securing the first rank overall) Bombay Incorporated Law Society (Solicitor's exam) - 1990 (secured the first rank and highest marks in all 5 subjects) LLM - 1991 University of Cambridge, UK Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test - Law society of England and Wales - 1992

Ms. Malavika T. Vikram, is one of De Penning & De Penning's Senior Attorney, with a wealth of experience in the field of Trademark, Copyright, Domain name protection and enforcement. Ms. Vikram started her career in Law as a Research Scholar in Criminology Department of University of Strathclyde in Scotland, United Kingdom. On her return to India, she was a general practice lawyer before the Madras High Court, with special focus on Constitutional law, Family Law, Company Law and Intellectual Property Law. Malavika Vikram has been associated with De Penning & De Penning since 2002 and is currently the Practice Head of the Trademark & Copyright division. She also heads the IP Litigation department, which handles pre-litigation investigation, discovery and enforcement strategy culminating in Infringement action. Apart from civil action Malavika and team have initiated criminal actions against counterfeit activities on e-commerce sites and in physical stores. She has also led several pre-litigation negotiations to find amicable resolution to IP disputes. Her experience extends to advising clients on IP transactions and maximizing the financial value of IP Assets. Malavika works with Indian clients on trade mark and copyright prosecution and enforcement in APAC countries she is also a regular speaker in various IP sensitization and discussion forums and was a recipient of “Powerful Women in Intellectual Property, 2023“ award by the World IP Forum.

He heads the firm’s ship finance, shipping transport, oil and gas practice groups and co-heads the banking practice group. Advises clients across various industries: Banking, insurance, shipping, subsea engineering and marine services, offshore construction, infrastructure (LNG ports, energy,oil & gas), logistics and transport. Advising ship/rig owners on regulatory issues including flagging, cabotage, applicable taxes while investing in projects including LNG/port projects/FSRU projects, coastal,inland waterways, logistics, CFS & ICDs. Reviewing RFQ, bid documents,assessing risk areas. While structuring investments he deals with competition law issues, red flag items-pollution,product liability, risks which are not insurable etc. Advises Overseas Lenders in India related ship and structured finance for new builts,second hand vessels, offshore structures, sale and lease back. He has extensive ship finance practice, having completed 400 ship finance deals in the past 12 years of new buildings,second-hand vessels, ocean-going vessels and oil rigs, LNG carriers, FSRUs, FPSOs, operating in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone.   Some of the Go Green deals handled by him are:   ·        Actedfor overseas lenders for financing the first four LNG vessels “Disha, Raahi,Aseem, Prachi” flying foreign flags vessels on long term charters to PetronetLNG (2001-2004, 2009, 2016).   ·        Acted for Hoegh LNG in 2020 in regard to a 10-yearcharter with H-Energy for their LNG import terminal at Jaigarh, India. Höegh LNG will be the first FSRU operating in India and will replace a coal consumption with natural gas reducing CO2 emissions of 120 million tonnes etc.   Advises on all types of charterparty contracts,particularly relating to dry cargo (bulk)- iron ore/coal. Integrate subsea and marine service industry for seamless project delivery.   Recently advised private equity fund entering Indian shipping industry.   Mr. Thacker hand lessale and purchase contracts of goods/ services, take or pay, logistics, trade,commodities, supply chain contracts of raw material and finished products,licensing, dealership etc.   His litigation/arbitration practice is domestic& cross-border. Deals with banking & debt disputes, corporate insolvencies & restructurings, enforcement of foreign awards. Advises on managing litigation risks & facilitates negotiations to resolve disputes thus resulting in the least possible adverse effect to clients business &benefit   Lloyd’s List ranked him in the “Top 10 Lawyers” stating “HIGHLY regarded for his work in the LNG sector, particularly for interesting and highly geared finance deals in relation to infrastructure projects, energy, ports and ships.”   Mr Thacker is ranked Band 1 by Chambers: Shipping& Maritime for over last 10 years, and ranked in Banking & Insurance for several years. He is consistently recognized as leading lawyers for Shipping by Legal 500. He has also been ranked by Who’s Who Legal: Banking,Finance and Shipping from 2017 to 2021. Who’s Who Legal says: ‘WWL says: Shardul Thacker is singled out among peers for his "profound knowledge of the local legal environment and transactions" within the shipping industry” He is the India correspondent for Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly. Vice President of Indian Maritime Law Association, affiliated to CMI. Member of Executive Committee of Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration, Maritime Users’ Council. Contributed India Sections: ·        International Maritime Law Handbook, Kluwer ·        Transport Finance Law Review 2021, Law Business Research ·        Chambers Global Practice Legal Guides for Shipping and Insurance 2019 ·        International Comparative Legal Guide for Shipping Law 2019, GLG, UK ·        Time Bar in Insurance& Reinsurance, “An International Comparison”, Clyde & Co’s. Cross-Border Security, Norton Rose & Buttorworths. 800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-IN X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}

Arief is the founding partner of HNP. He obtained his law degree (SH) from Trisakti University and his master of laws (LL.M) from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA. He is a licensed advocate and a member of Indonesian Advocate Association (Peradi). His areas of expertise include corporate commercial, debt and corporate restructuring, merger & acquisition, agribusiness and media. Arief has represented clients in major corporate and commercial transactions involving private and public listed companies. Prior to founding HNP, Arief worked both in-house counsel for several multi-national and domestic companies in plantation and media industry and private practice at one of the leading commercial law firms in Jakarta where he was mainly involved in corporate commercial and merger & acquisition projects. Particularly, Arief has a strong in-depth knowledge and expertise in palm oil plantation matters and has assisted major clients in various projects including the structuring investment and the acquisition of palm oil plantation companies in Indonesia.