India Law Alliance (ILA) is a boutique law firm with a competitive edge, focused on dispute resolution. Its initials ILA stand for its core values of being Invested, staying Loyal and being Agile. It enjoys a market share in Arbitration and Dispute Resolution. It also specializes in dispute resolution strategy, legal advice and execution of litigation and arbitration. The Firm has represented clients at the Supreme Court of India, High Courts of various states, National Company Law Tribunal, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Securities Appellate Tribunal, and many other dispute resolution tribunals and boards.
The Founding Duo
The Firm was founded by its Founding Partners, Anupam Dighe and Kamlesh Kharade.
Anupam is a lawyer from Mumbai and Solicitor from England and Wales (Non-practicing). He co-founded the firm, with a vision to provide clients with quality services and high investment of time from lawyers. He believes that his resources are his greatest strength and that human capital is the most undervalued but over performing asset of any organisation.
Kamlesh is a lawyer and Notary Public from Mumbai and Solicitor from England & Wales. He co-founded the firm with a vision to serve corporates and businesses that could not afford the hourly rates set out by tier I firms. He focuses on providing quality attention to detail and well-founded advice from lawyers that corporates could rely on. He believes in an honesty-driven approach, both with clients and his own team.
Both the Founding Partners have worked with common goals and vision, to gradually but surely scale the firm to greater heights. They keep their ear to the ground, understand their client’s needs, take a solution-oriented approach towards every matter and are excellent mentors to the team at the firm.
Distinct Areas of Practice
The firm is focused on four broad areas of practice.
General and Corporate Litigation
It provides a solution-oriented approach to disputes or potential disputes. It works closely with the clients to understand their pain points and commercial interests, in order to represent and protect them efficaciously.
Arbitration
International arbitration courts are fast becoming the battlegrounds on which the world’s largest companies are resolving their disputes to protect their interests. As a firm, ILA had a first mover advantage in this arena, given the clients it represents and their need to resolve disputes, swiftly. The firm enjoys an extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution, with a special focus on arbitration both in the Indian courts and before various domestic and foreign forums.
Tax Litigation
This is the firm’s key practice of providing advisory and litigation legal services, for both direct and indirect tax. It holds tax law expertise and has a unique ability to simplify extremely complex aspects of the same, for the ease of its clients. Its opinions and interpretations are often sought by experts and courts in India and internationally and has also advised leading multi-nationals and large Indian business houses.
Insolvency and Bankruptcy
In India, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy practice is a relatively new one, with the legislation itself being at a nascent stage. ILA’s pre-existing litigation experience has enabled it to obtain favourable resolutions across a host of forums—for all types of insolvency-related litigation, oppression & mismanagement, Winding-up Petitions.
Views on Legal Situation and e-courts
The law and order condition in India, according to the founding duo, has evolved gradually but surely. They say, “We are glad to see that courts and arbitral tribunals are focused on resolving conflict, enabling parties to move forward. In the last couple of decades, we have seen our judiciary deal with some grave and complex issues, swiftly and efficiently.”
With the launch of e-courts, the firm believes it to be a harmonious amalgamation of technology with the law. Like FinTech, it suspects that Legal and Tech will soon become unanimous. It sees new trends emerging, such as:
- artificial intelligence being used for legal research,
- predictive technology to forecast the results of cases,
- and using technology to standardize contracts and drafts.
Taking a huge leap towards digitization, the Supreme Court digitized one crore five lakh pages and records of civil appeals in an endeavour to embrace technology. The launch of the Integrated Case Management System (ICMIS), for promoting digitization of government service delivery to Indian courts extends the flagship program. The firm has started making the stride in that direction and it is only a matter of time before technology transforms the way courtrooms function.
Handling the Social Mantle
The firm is very sensitive to clients or potential clients coming from the lower income group. Most of the times, it tries to mediate between the parties, and draw their attention to the cost they will have to incur, should they take the litigation route. Apart from this, if parties have irreconcilable differences or the other party refuses to come to meet the lawyers, then they take the cost on actuals like court fees but do not charge a fee for the services and time.
Inspiring the Young
The founders remind the young practitioners that “We would tell anyone kick-starting a journey, in the business of law that the most important part is to do your adequate research in the space you plan to build your business. See what the market needs, and assess whether your service is helping bridge a gap. This helps you to set your own vision and goal”. Constant innovation, being updated with legislative changes, immense self-belief and perseverance are some traits that will take one through.
India Law Alliance’s future goals are in line with its aim to continue to build a niche for quality litigation support and strategy. It will continue to focus on delivering quality to its clients.
