We are glad to inform our readers that Singh & Singh Lall & Sethi (SSL&S) announced promotion of 7 of its attorneys this week. Senior Associates Archana Sahadeva, Ashutosh Kumar & Upender Thakur have been promoted to Associate Partners while Associates Ali Areeb Zaidi, Jaya Mandelia, Kapil Midha & Manika Arora have been promoted to Senior Associates. The promotion is effective from October 1, 2016.
Archana Sahadeva joined Singh and Singh in 2007 and post the merger of the two firms (Singh & Singh and Lall & Sethi) she continues to be part of the firm. She is involved in advisory, regulatory and litigation practice for various clients across industries in matters stemming from IP laws, Drug laws, Competition law and IT laws, amongst others, in her practice spanning close to 10 years. She is also an Advocate-on-Record and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Laws from NLSIU, Bangalore.
Ashutosh Kumar has done his specialization in the field of IP & Competition Law from University College London (UCL). Currently, he is working as an IP & Competition law Attorney with the firm. He is currently involved in patent and FRAND related issued before various courts including Competition Commission of India, High Court and Supreme Court. He has also been involved in landmark IPR cases including Novartis vs Union of India and Ericsson vs Competition Commission of India.
Upender Thakur was enrolled as an advocate in the year 2006 and is currently dealing with, inter alia, Broadcasting, Telecom and Cable Law issues before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), Hon’ble High Court of Delhi and Hon’ble Supreme Court. He is also actively involved in arbitration proceedings touching upon domestic and international commercial disputes under Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.
Ali Areeb Zaidi graduated from Symbiosis Law School, Pune in 2009 and joined erstwhile Lall & Sethi as an Associate. He also holds a diploma in Intellectual Property Laws from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). His main area of expertise is trademark and copyright prosecution and enforcement work. Ali worked at Lall & Sethi from 2009 to 2012 and left to prepare for services and started independent practice mainly taking pro bono cases with respect to labor issues. He rejoined the firm in January 2016 as a part of the prosecution team, specializing in intellectual property enforcement for the pharma industry.
Jaya Mandelia completed her Bachelor of Science, Liberal Arts & Sciences in Psychology and Political Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2009. She thereafter completed her LL.B. from Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in 2013 and joined the firm in the same year. Jaya is involved in advisory and litigation with respect to all four branches of IPR i.e. trade mark, copyright, design and patent litigation.
Kapil Midha graduated from Amity Law School, Delhi and joined the firm in 2013. He works across all areas of intellectual property litigation. He has also been involved in patent litigation in the pharmaceutical sector and also has experience in relation to biosimilar matters. Prior to joining SSL&S, he has gained experience in International Arbitration while interning at Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), Singapore. He is also actively involved in the content regulatory practice of the firm.
Manika Arora, Attorney-at-law and an M.Tech in Biotechnology, specializes in patent, trademark and design laws with a special focus on patent prosecution and litigation. She advises and handles domestic and international clients in various sectors including but not limiting to life sciences, medical devices and mechanical.
The promotion of three Senior Associates – Mr. Thakur, Mr. Kumar and Ms. Sahadeva to Associate Partners will strengthen the practice areas of the firm in the fields of Telecom, Competition law and Regulatory practice respectively.
The other promotions are again in areas where the firm is growing strategically and these include trade mark prosecution (Mr. Ali Areeb Zaidi), trade mark litigation (Ms. Jaya Mandelia), patent litigation – biosimilars and pharma (Mr. Kapil Midha) and patent prosecution (Ms. Manika Arora)
Singh & Singh Lall & Sethi is growing from strength to strength following the merger of the two constituent firms in the year 2015. The firm serves as a one stop solution for IP, Telecom, Broadcasting, Regulatory, Advisory, Media, Arbitration, Competition laws, Information Technology and related aspects, with a wide bandwidth to handle large portfolios and litigation across all forums. The firm currently is growing in leaps and bounds with its patent and trademark prosecution. Other than the Delhi office, the firm already has its offices in Nepal and Sri Lanka and is shortly planning to have its offices across various cities in India and SAARC territories. The current strength of the firm only for Delhi office is over 150 members.