Water & Shark has announced the joining of Aniket Gautam as Senior Managing Partner Cross-Border Disputes and International Legal Practice.
This joining has been a result of the strategic partnership between the Water & Shark and the Indian law firm ASG & Partners.
In this role, Gautam will head Water & Shark Legal’s international dispute-resolution mandate, working with the firm’s existing legal, tax and advisory teams to deliver integrated solutions to clients facing complex multi-jurisdictional disputes, enforcement challenges and family-related legal proceedings across global markets.
He regularly appears before the Supreme Court of India, various High Courts, and judicial forums including the NCLAT, NCLT, DRAT, DRT and NCDRC.
His practice spans corporate advisory, private equity, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, international arbitration, cross-border dispute resolution, capital markets, banking and finance, white-collar crime, insolvency, and regulatory and policy matters.
The partnership brings together two complementary institutions Water & Shark’s global advisory platform and ASG & Partners’ India-rooted legal practice into a unified, borderless legal and advisory capability.
Speaking on this development, Harsh Girish Patel, Founder and Global CEO, Water & Shark, said,
“Ten years ago, I shared a vision with Mr. Aniket Gautam to build a global advisory firm that Indian professionals could be proud of. From that first conversation, he believed in what we were building. Over the last decade, he has been a trusted adviser, a guiding voice, and a quiet pillar of strength behind Water & Shark’s journey.
To have him formally on board today leading our cross-border dispute resolution and international legal practice is not only a professional milestone. It is the fulfilment of a decade-long shared conviction.
Water & Shark was built on the belief that global families navigating a complex, fragile and uncertain world deserve advisers who think without borders. With the partnership with ASG & Partners, and joining of Mr. Aniket Gautam, we are significantly better positioned to deliver our services across multiple jurisdictions where our clients live, invest and build.”
Gautam himself shared,
“Water & Shark represents exactly what Indian professional services must become, not a firm operating within borders, but a firm that thinks beyond them. Harsh’s vision of building a truly global advisory institution one that serves sovereign institutions, royal families and global enterprises with the same standard of excellence regardless of jurisdiction is a vision I have believed in from the moment I first heard it.
The opportunity to lead Water & Shark’s international dispute-resolution practice bringing together our combined legal depth across India, the UAE and international arbitration forums is one I embrace with full commitment. Global families and institutions deserve legal counsel that is as borderless as the challenges they face. That is precisely what we intend to deliver. The partnership between Water & Shark and ASG & Partners will facilitate seamless collaboration between the respective teams, enabling lawyers and professionals from both firms to work together on cross-border and multi-disciplinary matters, share expertise, and provide clients with a highly integrated service offering, while each firm shall retain its independent identity and governance.”