Biography: Competition

Samir R Gandhi is a partner in the New Delhi office of Economic Laws Practice (ELP), where he deals with a broad range of competition law and policy issues, as well as international trade and WTO matters.

Mr Gandhi advises on every area of competition law and policy and has worked closely with the Competition Commission of India as its counsel in all its major litigation at various courts and tribunals, including the Competition Appellate Tribunal and the Supreme Court of India. Mr Gandhi has also advised clients, both as complainants and as defendants, in several behavioural cases before the Competition Commission of India. Recent work includes acting for companies in sectors such as technology, telecommunications, broadcast distribution, film production, sports management, cement, pharmaceuticals, ports, and speciality glass products.

He advises a number of clients on merger control issues and was part of the advisory team to the commission that helped give shape to the 2011 merger regulations. Recent merger-related work includes advice on the global acquisition of a mobile handset manufacturer, the merger between two of the world's largest phosphate manufacturers and the amalgamation of the Indian operations of a global IT company. Mr Gandhi routinely advises a number of multinational corporations and industry associations on their competition compliance programmes and has also been involved in formulating competition policy for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

He is a graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar and Mahindra Trust Fellow. He was a visiting fellow at Columbia Law School and is admitted to practise in India. Mr Gandhi is a member of the American Society for International Law, and the antitrust chapters of the International Bar Association and the Inter-Pacific Bar Association and frequently publishes and speaks about competition law. Mr Gandhi is also listed as a leading competition lawyer in India by Practical Law Company's Competition & Leniency multi-jurisdictional guide.

ELP's competition law and policy practice comprises of lawyers, accountants and economists and has been consistently ranked highly by its peers and professional journals. Asia-Counsel has named ELP as 'Firm of the Year for Antitrust and Competition' in 2009; and ELP's competition law practice group has been awarded the prestigious Indian Law Firm Award for the year 2010 by the India Business Law Journal. ELP has had the distinction of advising the Competition Commission of India even prior to the enforcement of the Competition Act and has been an integral part of the commission's advocacy initiatives. The firm's partners have served as counsel to the commission in a number of first-of-its-kind test cases, which have helped to shape the practice and interpretation of competition law in India. The competition team at ELP works closely with the firm's strong litigation practice and also draws from good relationships with a number of reputed international economic consultants to provide comprehensive advice to its clients.

ELP has four offices in India – Bombay, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune. Besides competition law, the firm's areas of practice include international trade and WTO, customs, tax advisory and litigation, infrastructure, dispute resolution, transfer pricing, regulatory and general corporate matters.

Biography: Trade & Customs

Samir R Gandhi is a partner at Economic Laws Practice's New Delhi office where he deals with a broad range of international trade and WTO matters as well as competition law and policy issues. He graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and received his LLM from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a Commonwealth Scholar. He was a visiting fellow at Columbia Law School.

Prior to joining ELP, Mr Gandhi worked at the WTO Secretariat where he dealt with a number of legal issues involving trade, environment and technical standards.

Mr Gandhi advises clients, including the government of Israel, the Indian Ministry of Commerce and various UN agencies on a wide-range of trade policy issues, including: GSP benefits, customs classification, regional trade agreements, non-tariff barriers and dispute settlement. He is also frequently consulted on issues pertaining to labelling, technical product standards and market access restrictions.

Mr Gandhi has assisted as counsel to the government of India before the WTO panel and Appellate Body in India-Additional Duties and at the consultation stage of two WTO disputes with the European Community. He is frequently invited to lecture and speak on international trade issues and has had his work on international trade published in leading journals, including the Journal of World Trade.

Mr Gandhi has been at ELP since 2005 as part of the firm's international trade practice, which has received high rankings in bar publications such as Chambers Global and Asia Legal 500. ELP is the only Indian law firm listed as external legal counsel to the Advisory Centre on WTO Law.