Biography: Trade & Customs

Suhail Nathani is a co-founder partner at Economic Laws Practice. He obtained an MA in Law from Cambridge University in England in 1990. Mr Nathani received an LLM from Duke University in the US in 1991. Mr Nathani is admitted to practice in India and is also admitted to the New York State Bar.

Mr Nathani has been involved in several of the Indian trade remedial measure cases at every level - Designated Authority, Appellate Authority, the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. The firm continues its enviable record of successes and last year represented the exporter with the lowest duties (including from China) in the most contentious and high-profile concerning SDH Telecom Equipment. He was lead counsel to the government of India at the WTO panel and appellate body in India - Additional and Extra-Additional Duties on Imports from the United States (Wines & Spirits) brought by the United States. He also handled the first safeguard case in India.

On the trade advisory front, Mr Nathani has advised on aspects of GATT, GATS and Free Trade Agreements, including rules of origin, non-tariff barriers, trade remedial measures and market access. He has been widely published and is a frequent speaker at various conferences. He co-authored a chapter in WTO at 10 a compilation of articles on the first 10 years of the WTO, published by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies. He is a vice-chair of the international trade committee at the IPBA and a member of the economic committee of Confederation of Indian Industry for Western India.

Economic Laws Practice is a 10-year-old firm with four offices in India – Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune. Besides international trade, the firm's areas of practice include customs, tax advisory and litigation, infrastructure, dispute resolution, transfer pricing, regulatory, competition, banking & finance, private equity, and general corporate matters.