Other Offices
The Firm also has offices in Bangalore, Chennai and New Delhi.
The Firm
We are a full service law firm with strong capabilities across diverse practice areas. At Jerome Merchant + Partners Legal, we emphasize on servicing our clients with consistent quality legal advice with the goal of building long-term relationships. We understand our clients’ commercial interests & market and hence adopt a commercial and pragmatic approach to advising clients on their business dealings. We operate as a unified group, working seamlessly across disciplines and offices to achieve the best results for our clients.
About Jerome Merchant + Partners
Jerome Merchant + Partners represents the practices of Poovayya and Company (a Bangalore headquartered law firm) and the law practices of Vishnu Jerome through an associate arrangement between the firms.
Vishnu Jerome was a partner with AZB & Partners, Mumbai and worked there for a period of over 7 years. He thereafter co-founded Alliance Legal in 2011. Vishnu is recognized as a “Leader in the field” of Banking & Finance by Chambers Asia Pacific for the Year 2014. Vishnu is a ranked lawyer for Banking & Finance in the Chambers’ Global Guide, 2016. Chambers’ Global Guide for Banking and Finance 2016 recognizes Vishnu as a lawyer who “works on a range of financing transactions, although he is especially noted for his aviation finance expertise” Vishnu’s principal practice areas are banking & finance, corporate, M&A, private equity and regulatory. Vishnu graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore in 2002.
Kalpana Merchant is a senior partner of the Firm. Kalpana has over thirty-five years of experience as a solicitor and prior to joining P&C Legal was a senior partner at Kanga & Co and AZB & Partners, Mumbai. Kalpana’s principal practice areas are real estate, dispute resolution and banking and finance laws.
Shameek Ray is a corporate partner at the Firm. Prior to joining Vishnu in 2011, Shameek was at AZB & Partners where he worked for more than 5 years with primary focus on the capital markets practice. Shameek’s principal practice areas are private equity, M&A, foreign exchange laws, banking and finance, securities laws and general corporate advisory practice. Shameek graduated from the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata in 2006.
Murtaza Somjee is a corporate partner at the Firm. Mutaza’s principal practice areas are transaction advisory, banking & finance, M&A, regulatory and disputes. Murtaza was a senior associate with AZB & Partners. Prior to joining the firm, Murtaza, completed his masters at the University of Chicago and is a graduate of the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (2008).
Sameer Sibal is a corporate partner at the Firm. Sameer’s principal practice areas are banking & finance, private equity, funds and transaction advisory. Sameer was also previously at AZB & Partners. Prior to joining the Firm, Sameer, completed his LLM from Columbia University, New York where he was awarded the Harlin Fiske Stone Scholar and is a graduate of the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (2009).
The Firm has offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and New Delhi.
Practice Areas
- Corporate
- Disputes
- Regulatory
- Employment, pensions and benefits
- Real estate
- Technology Media and Telecommunications
Corporate
- Banking & Finance
- M&A & Joint Ventures
- Private Equity & Venture Capital
- Corporate Litigation
- General Corporate Advisory
- Regulatory
Banking & Finance
We represent lenders and borrowers in a range of financing transactions including vanilla financing, mezzanine financing, external commercial borrowing, structured debt products, project financing, securitization and debt assignment transactions. Our clients include some of the world’s largest commercial banks, investment banks, non-banking financial companies, investment and merchant banking firms, private investment funds and other institutional lenders and investors and borrowers and issuers of securities.
Aviation Financing: The Firm provides in-depth advise on cross border financing transactions. We represent airlines, air carriage operators, financial institutions, lessors and support providers (such as MROs) on a broad spectrum of acquisition, financing, lease and related regulatory matters. Our experience includes financing of purchase and lease of aircrafts by Air India and SpiceJet. In the year 2014-15, we have advised financial institutions on aircraft financing transactions aggregating to over USD 1.2 billion.
General corporate finance: The Firm regularly advises banks and NBFCs in providing general corporate financing facilities. These facilities apart from general working capital arrangements include export credit financing transactions, asset financing and other such funding arrangements. The general corporate finance practice of the Firm also advises lenders and corporates on external commercial borrowing and trade credit facilities.
Listed & Structured Debt: The Firm has a strong structured debt practice both on the listed and unlisted space. Amongst other debt placements, the Firm has advised L&T Finance on the first preference share listing in India. The Firm has in the recent past regularly advised institutions such as Deutsche Bank on their listed debt arrangements, as well corporate houses such as Tata Motors Limited and Shriram Transport. The Firm has also advised on all aspects of securitization regulations and transactions for certain NBFCs, trustees and originators of securitized assets.
Infrastructure and Project Finance: The Firm has advised lenders in financing of power projects and NHAI sponsored road projects.
The Banking & Finance team is staffed with attorneys who have previously worked at extensive experience in the field.
M&A & Joint Ventures
We have advised acquirers and sellers at every step of the transaction – from preparation of offers to negotiations, documentation, and closing. We have also advised corporates, investors and entrepreneurs on structuring, drafting and negotiating their joint venture agreements. When structuring and planning acquisitions and investments, we are also able to call on our experience in allied areas such as regulatory, tax, employment, commercial, dispute resolution, real estate and intellectual property law. Some of our recent, most notable transactions and clients include:
Private Equity & Venture Capital
We have advised private equity investors at all stages ion their investment cycle – from establishing the fund and making investments, to ongoing portfolio assistance including restructuring advice, to exiting from those investments. With our experience we understand the dynamics of the private equity marketplace and along with our legal skills bring to the table commercial sophistication, understanding of the regulatory framework and top quality project management skills. Some of our recent, most notable transactions and clients include:
General Corporate Advisory
We advise our clients on critical commercial arrangements and our experience includes advising and drafting on all kinds of commercial contracts including contracts covering outsourcing, services distribution, software licensing, development, product, marketing, manufacturing, supply, engineering procurement, operations, maintenance and support, collaboration, project and equipment leasing and online terms and conditions. We also advise our clients across sectors in relation to corporate governance, corporate responsibility, company formation and administration, stock exchange obligations, shareholder rights including assisting our clients with implementing corporate governance reforms and complying with reporting requirements. Some of our recent, most notable transactions and clients include:
Regulatory & Compliance
We provide an array of legal services to financial services companies. We handle regulatory matters and compliance issues, general placement programs, portfolio and wealth management advise, provide advice on the introduction of new products and business lines.
We have from time to time advised our clients in relation to industry specific regulations (aviation, hospitality, web based businesses, technology media and telecommunications, retail trading, pharmaceuticals) and economic & financial regulations such as foreign exchange laws, FDI policy, securities laws, and antitrust laws.
Real Estate
Our real estate practice is lead by Ms. Kalpana Merchant, the Firm’s senior partner. She has extensive experience in the real estate space across all major Indian states.
Corporate Litigation
Our dispute resolution practice is a niche practice area which aims at providing our clients with end to end advise including pre- litigation advise, negotiation and effective use of court processes. The disputes practice adopts a result oriented strategy intended to ensure that the client achieves its commercial goals in the challenging Indian litigation and arbitration scenario.
Our practice covers a wide area of commercial matters including mergers & acquisitions, joint venture disputes, lender disputes, security enforcement, debt recovery, employment and human resources, contractual disputes, company matters, insolvency and information technology and privacy related disputes, amongst others.
