Leading global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer has appointed a new leadership team for its India practice.
Partner Alan Montgomery, who was previously Co-Head of the firm’s India practice, has been appointed as Chair, and partners Siddhartha (Sid) Shukla and Dhananjaya (DJ) Chak have been appointed as the new Co-Heads of the practice. Their roles came into effect on 1 May 2026.
Collectively, they take over from former Chair Chris Parsons who has retired from the firm and former Co-Head Roddy Martin who will continue to be a key member of the India practice.
Alan Montgomery is a leading international M&A practitioner with 30 years of experience and has been instrumental in building and shaping the firm's India practice over the last two decades.
Sid Shukla is a leading partner in the firm’s global M&A practice advising clients on high-profile, award-winning M&A deals globally and in India and is the first from the firm's Indian internship programme to be promoted to partner.
Dhananjaya Chak is a partner in the firm’s Finance practice and a key member of its market-leading team in the energy transition, natural resources and infrastructure sectors. He has extensive experience acting for clients on complex, award-winning financing transactions with a particular focus on India.
Jeremy Walden, Executive Partner for UK and EMEA, Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, said:
“Our new leadership team is perfectly positioned to deliver on the next phase of growth in our market-leading India practice.
“We owe Chris Parsons and Roddy Martin sincere thanks for their outstanding leadership and contribution to our India practice over many years. We wish Chris the very best in his retirement from the firm and are delighted that Roddy will continue to be a part of the practice through his client work.”
Alan, Sid and DJ, the new India leadership team, said:
“We are excited to be leading our Band 1 India practice and to continuing to work closely with our key clients on their most important matters in India and internationally. We are really looking forward to building on the strong foundations established by the firm over the last 30 years and to driving the next phase of strong growth."
Notes
For more details on Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer’s India practice, which is ranked Band 1 in Chambers and Partners (for 14 consecutive years) and Tier 1 in Legal 500 (for 17 consecutive years) for Corporate/M&A, see here.
Recent highlight matters include advising:
- JSW Energy advising on its acquisition of O2 Power from EQT Infrastructure and Temasek for c.US$1.5 billion
- Jubilant Bhartia Group on its acquisition of a 40% stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings for up to US$1.4 billion.
- Bharti Global and HMG on the consortium acquisition of OneWeb and on fundraisings of approximately US$2.2 billion
- OneWeb on its approximately US$7 billion merger with Eutelsat
- Dr Reddy’s on its £500m acquisition of Haleon’s global portfolio of consumer healthcare brands in the Nicotine Replacement Therapy
- Bharti Airtel on its US$10.7 billion acquisition of the 15 African mobile networks of Zain Africa
- Ennismore a UK-based developer and the owner of The Hoxton and Gleneagles, on its joint venture with Accor to create a new global lifestyle hotels company
- The lenders on their JPY equivalent ~INR 20,000,000,000 ECB project financing for the development, construction and operation of ReNew Hans Urja Private Limited's 600MW AC greenfield solar power project in Rajasthan, India
- The lenders on the US$125 million ECB financing for CleanMax Tasman Private Limited's greenfield 140MW AC wind power project in Koppal, Karnataka, India
- The lenders on the US$310 million ECB financing for the AM Green Ammonia Project in Kakinada, India
- The lenders on the c.US$600 million dual-currency (USD/JPY) ECB financing for Evren Energy's 1GW greenfield solar, wind and BESS firm and dispatchable renewable energy project in Andhra Pradesh, India