Q&A | Neil Hildreth | Commercial Disputes

hello, I’m Neil Hilddrit, co-founder and managing partner of Channel One Law Partners, which is a boutique firm based out of India. I have over 24 years of experience in advising and representing clients on commercial and regulatory matters. over the course of my career I have represented clients before the Supreme Court of India, various high court boards, tribunals and regulatory authorities across the country. my practice focuses mostly on commercial disputes, arbitration both domestic and international.

as well as advising clients on various regulatory legislations which include labor and employment laws, real estate, data protection and privacy, competition, antitrust, intellectual property, environmental laws, foreign exchange laws and the likes.

At Channel One Law Partners, we focus on commercially pragmatic solutions and we try and align our solutions with the client’s business objectives. some of the key features of our service offerings and the practice we have that we offer to our clients is one our cross-border expertise particularly for our international clients who are unfamiliar with the Indian regulatory framework which tends to be very extensive and complex. we also look to provide our clients with an end toend legal support and

assistance. so right from regulatory compliance, labor law related issues in compliance intellectual property, data right protection through to litigation support, arbitration and enforcement of judgments and awards before regulators right up to the Supreme Court. And we assist our clients on a panindia basis which is wherever their businesses are set up we’re able to support. We also provide integrated dispute compliance and advisory services which allows clients to address contentious and non-contentious issues fairly seamlessly.

And most importantly, we have and adopt robust internal protocols and safeguards to ensure strict client confidentiality and maintain the highest standards of ethics and professional integrity. our approach is a combination of legal precision, strategic insights, enabling clients to manage legal risks proactively rather than reactively.

We act for multinational corporations, private equity investors, promoter groups, developers, senior executives, high netw worth individuals and emerging businesses. we service clients from diverse sectors including in infrastructure, construction companies, e-commerce platforms, hospital chains, electronic product manufacturers, technology companies and many many many others. our work typically includes high value contractual and commercial disputes, arbitration and dispute resolution which includes enforcement of awards, employment and human resource related matters, data protection and privacy matters, real estate transactions and disputes, intellectual property

rights, antitrust and competition law, foreign exchange change laws and other regulatory legislations. We are frequently instructed on matters involving significant financial exposure regulatory scrutiny or reputational risk and often at critical stages where strategic intervention is essential.

We’ve had the privilege of acting as trusted legal advisors and long-term partners to our clients in several instances. you know, what began as relatively small one-time mandates evolved into our role as full-time advisers and legal representatives assisting the client across virtually all their legal issues, you know. And over the years we’ve had many significant cases and we’ve succeeded in assisting our clients in setting up their businesses dealing with challenging regulatory issues and compliance related matters. But some of the notable achievements and cases that

I can think of right now, one was a matter involving a domestic client who received attachment orders from the tax authorities. we represented this client right from the tax regulator stage right up to the Supreme Court of India. that is we worked with the client and assisted him and represented him through the entire appellet stage. and this eventually the Supreme Court of India quashed and threw out the attachment notices that were issued to our client. and

the the reason why I mentioned this and why it was of significance is because the judgment that the Supreme Court of India passed it recommended that it recommended to parliament that the civil procedure code be amended in respect to service of notices of attachment to parties. So that was fairly significant. another significant matter was and is something we’re involved with where we’re assisting a very large hospital chain in their expansion work and their project which involves

you know acquisition of of property across India. we’ve assisted them in carrying out due diligence title search of properties in the negotiation and drafting of the documentation for this process and we’ve been highly successful in covering in a very short time you know quite diverse in terms of geography places across India in in the client being able to set up u you know their hospitals in various parts of the country. another one of another

significant matter involves one of a very large global technology company in fact one of the largest that we have in respect to labor law related issues and we’ve successfully you know set aside had the appellet authority as well as the high court set aside you imposition of penalties on this entity and we’ve been we’ve succeeded you know across the country because this was invoked in various different jurisdictions across India and we’ve successfully represented them and had

these penalties set aside. apart from this we actively are involved in international and domestic arbitrations where we represent multinational corporations. We’ve provided end-to-end support to our clients that is you know right from the invocation of arbitration to conducting the entire trial finally arguing the matter and even enforcement of the award. and we we’ve been fairly successful in in in that regard. Most of our clients in this space are infrastructure and com construction clients.

So these are some of the matters that we’ve done which are of some significance. We joined global law experts to strengthen our international presence and to be more accessible to clients and referring firms on a worldwide basis and requiring you know you know clients as well as firms looking for trusted experience councils in India. And that is just to say just one of the things why we’ve approached them where you know it provides a wonderful platform for us to showcase our

expertise so to speak.