Farhad is a senior partner at JSA. He has been in practice for over thirty years and has chaired the Firm’s disputes practice. Before joining the firm as a partner in 2005, Farhad practiced as counsel in leading chambers in Mumbai for over 15 years.
Farhad acts and appears in diverse complex multi-jurisdictional national and international commercial arbitrations and court disputes involving tortious and contractual aspects of civil law, as well as advising and acting in investor-state bilateral treaty disputes. He was the lead advisor in simultaneous litigation and arbitration proceedings in Sri Lanka and the U.K. for a global port operator in a shareholder dispute for which the Firm was awarded the ‘Asian Counsel-Deal of the Year’ for Dispute Resolution, and acted for the lead respondent in the recent Supreme Court Constitution Bench decision in Cox and Kings Ltd. v. SAP India Pvt. Ltd. concerning the impleading of non-signatories to an agreement in arbitration proceedings.
Farhad has vast and varied experience in advising and acting in innumerable local and international arbitrations and tribunal and court proceedings involving diverse industry sectors, and on infrastructure projects and the construction and maintenance of industrial assets. He has acted in several complex engineering and plant performance disputes, corporate commercial disputes, as well constitutional, regulatory and international trade assignments. He has acted for clients in both ad hoc arbitrations and institutional arbitrations under various rules. He has acted and appeared in several landmark decisions of the Supreme Court of India, on issues relating to Indian administrative and arbitration law. Farhad has advised and appeared in numerous multi-pronged international trade defence investigations and proceedings involving anti-dumping and safeguard duties.
Farhad steered the Firm’s competition law practice at inception and has acted in India’s first cartelist activity investigation by the Competition Commission of India and also its first substantive abuse of dominance proceeding. He advises on merger control issues and clearances in both global and Indian acquisitions and mergers, as well as on internal competition law corporate compliance.
Recent work includes successful arbitration, appeal and Supreme Court proceedings for a global port operator against a major port trust’s demands for land lease charges, acting in arbitration proceedings for an European manufacturer of amusement park rides opposing claims for damages for an alleged equipment failure and accident, advising and acting for an European investor in an UNCITRAL Bilateral Investor Treaty arbitration and set aside proceedings in the English court, and representing a global ERP software company in arbitration and diverse Indian court proceedings concerning the group of companies/non-signatory impleadment doctrine in arbitration.
Farhad is an Accredited Mediator, CEDR (Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution), the pre-eminent international body for mediator training and accreditation.
Farhad has written variously in several legal publications and is a frequent speaker at legal seminars and events.
Qualifications and Admissions
- B.A. (Econ. Hons) 1983
- Bachelor of Laws (LLB) 1986
- Enrolled Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa 1986
- Bombay Bar Association 1987
- Accredited Mediator, CEDR
Memberships
- American Bar Association
- International Bar Association
Education
B.A.(Econ. Hons), LLB (Bombay University)
Languages
- English
- Hindi
- Gujarati – spoken
