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As a part of our nationwide research on law firms, we got into a conversation with Gagan Anand, Managing Partner, Legacy Law Offices to understand the firm’s journey so far and objectives in times to come. Here are excerpts of the conversation.

Briefly Tell Us about Legacy Law Offices and Its Journey since Inception

Legacy Law Offices was established in 2006 by its Founding Partner Raman Anand, who possesses over 50 years of rich legal experience across various areas of practice. In 2010, I took over the firm as its Managing Partner. We initially started our operations from a single office at Chandigarh. Within a few months, we managed to expand our offices to New Delhi, Solan, Kurukshetra, and subsequently Associate office at Mumbai Representative offices in the UK and the US. A culmination of a rich legacy, built up since the beginning of the 20th century, Legacy Law Offices is an eminent full-service Indian law firm having a global panorama, with the end objective of becoming the leading professionally managed institutional, legal service provider in the sphere of “developmental projects across a variety of infrastructure sectors” for the betterment of the society. The legal proficiency, technical know-how, and a knack for rendering specialized advisory expertise have been divulged to our firm through five generations of rigorously hardworking lawyers.

What are the Practice Areas that the Firm Holds Expertise in?

The firm initially started as a Projects, Infrastructure & Energy (PIE) Arbitration boutique firm and has now diversified into a leading PIE and Dispute Resolution practice, with an affinity for delivering high-stakes awards and notable projects. These projects range from the Nairobi Nakuru Highway in Kenya, a bundle of PPP projects in Zanzibar, Bangladesh Economic Zones, and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop, and Indo-Pak Kartarpur Corridor. We take pride in our capability to render expert legal advisory for Infrastructure and Developmental Projects in PPP mode across many sectors including, solid waste management, roads & railways, transport services, health, to name a few. The Law Firm has successfully rendered quality legal services, including project structuring, preparing procurement documents, bid process management, and supporting contract management for over 500 projects in PPP formats. Apart from our expertise in Infrastructure & construction projects, our practice areas include contract management, criminal laws, corporate laws, dispute resolution, doing business in India, family laws, insolvency laws, intellectual property rights, labour & employment benefits, public procurement, and sports laws. We have now diversified into a full-service law firm with a proven record of successfully representing Fortune 500 companies, PSUs, and renowned MNCs in numerous arcs of law.

What, according to you, has been a drive for change in terms of client delight?

Our approach at Legacy has always been client-oriented. We believe in fulfilling the client’s needs in the most efficient way, ensuring solutions for every unique problem brought before our team of ardent lawyers. We believe in the quote, “Teamwork makes the dream work,” and it is truly the symphony between advocates and the efficient management of time and work that ensures our client’s satisfaction. We also believe in keeping in touch with our clients and ensuring their well-being. The personal touch and the personalized approach that we offer to our clients sets us apart from our peers.

What are the new domains that the firm plans to diversify into? 

The firm has renewed its focus on Investment Arbitration (in addition to its acclaimed Commercial Arbitration practice) and other high-stake institutional arbitrations, focusing on cross-border mandates. Being the largest law firm operating out of Chandigarh, it has the dual advantage of tapping into Baddi (the Pharmaceutical Capital of India) and the Punjabi Music industry. Thus, Intellectual Property, Life Sciences, and M&A present high-growth opportunities for our firm. Our New Delhi Office is expanding from strength-to-strength, particularly in the Labour & Employment and the Private Client space. We have also received a few Banking/ Finance and Competition/ Antitrust mandates, and we have been working on enhancing our Disinvestment Portfolio, particularly in the PIE and Aviation law space. We also plan to expand our Mumbai presence to focus on Shipping, FDI, PE, Insurance, and Capital Markets.

Your views on India’s regulatory and governance environment and your regulatory experience

India’s regulatory and governance environment can be defined as encouraging and progressive. The government has shown its support through its liberal allocation of funds that focuses on health and infrastructure, providing the right impetus for growth and expansion. For any good governance to work its way, it must follow transparency, proportionality, effectiveness, and flexibility. India has tried to adhere to these principles and ensure the improvisation and strengthening of legislation to meet society’s ever-changing demands. It gives me immense pride to share with you that Legacy Law Offices has contributed to India’s regulatory environment by assisting several Central and State Govt. organizations in establishing and revamping legislations and framing regulatory policies and institutional frameworks. Legacy also has to its credit, some international regulatory experience worth mentioning, such as reviewing over 25 Kenyan legislation impacting highway projects in PPP mode for the first time in Kenya and reviewing all the national and municipal legal regulatory and institutional conditions affecting PPP projects in Tanzania. Our lawyers also had the privilege to study the budget law and the public procurement management Act of Mongolia for the Ministry of Finance, Mongolia.

Your message for the NexGen lawyers

My message to the young budding minds would be that hard work, belief in yourself, and persistence will help you achieve your goals. Never back down from pursuing your dreams. Today’s generation’s young minds are extraordinarily career driven and have a clear vision about what they aspire to achieve, which is highly commendable. Although, apart from being ambitious, it is essential to acknowledge that no work is small or big, and it is you who can make it as big as you can. So, keep believing in yourself and never give up!