Deepak Gupta

Deepak’s expertise pans legal and corporate matters, having extensively dealt with business and strategy issues in India and across jurisdictions. Deepak advises several Indian and Global Clients on a wide variety of issues, transactions/deals, due diligences, and business situations needing resolution. He specializes in dealing with complex legal issues and enabling solutions and implementation for businesses and clients.

Deepak was last Partner PwC and has extensively worked with MNCs around the Globe.Prior to joining PwC, Deepak was Vice President, Senior Counsel(Asia) and Company Secretary, responsible as Head of Legal for all American Express' businesses in India covering Domestic and Global servicing businesses. He served American Express for 14 years (1995¬-2009) and was a member of the American Express India Leadership Team.

Previously, he served a leading consumer goods (USHA brand) Indian organization of the Shriram Group (The Jay Engineering Works Limited- a listed entity). Jay Engineering had factories in Hyderabad, Calcutta and Agra and a warehousing and distribution network across India. Deepak was with Jay for over 12 years (1983-1995) and was Head of legal, GM- Corporate Affairs and Co. Secretary. A recognized industry leader Deepak has successfully led several pioneering regulatory changes, successfully advised multiple Global and large clients, built teams, legal processes and systems, while enabling business growth, pro-actively identifying regulatory issues, finding innovative, cost-effective and durable solutions. He has extensively dealt with multiple ministries and departments of Government of India at the highest levels, SEBI, RBI, CCI, MCA and other agencies, and participates as an expert in various industry bodies to influence Government thinking and laws.

You can find him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepak-gupta-2196518/

Kalpana Muthireddi

Kalpana Muthireddi is a lawyer and author of the book Legalese Decoded

She comes with law firm and in-house experience, and has handled international technology, commercial and outsourcing transactions; both on the revenue (sell) and procurement (buy) sides of the business.

Her expertise ranges across domains and includes structuring, drafting and negotiating contracts; advising and guiding internal stakeholders, including the heads of the business units and verticals; supply chain, data/privacy and GDPR. She has worked on (Master service and Framework agreements, Service Level Agreements, Technology Transfer Agreements, Alliance Agreements, Cloud computing, XaaS), data and analytics, and related agreements, Contract Audits; and M&A.

Areas of practice: Litigation (High Court of Karnataka), IT and Business/Commercial Transactions, Technology Transactions, Cloud Computing, International Transactions including outsourcing Agreements (IT and ITES), Supply Chain, Procurement, Cyber Law, Intellectual Property, Software Licensing, Aerospace, and Bio-Technology.

Ms. Muthireddi holds a LLM degree from Vanderbilt, Dean’s List, besides law degrees from premier law schools in India.

You can find her at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalpanamuthireddi and https://www.legalesedecoded.com

Mark Bravin and Jayanth Balakrishna

Mark N. Bravin heads the International Disputes Practice at Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP in Washington, D.C. and is Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center where he teaches Investor-State Dispute Resolution. During 40 years in the international law field, Mr. Bravin has represented sovereign states and private parties in arbitrations and litigation. He began his career arbitrating treaty claims on behalf of American companies whose investments were expropriated by Iran after the Islamic Revolution. He has handled numerous matters at the World Bank's International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). He successfully defended India against Hardy Exploration & Production’s attempt to enforce an unprecedented arbitral award ordering reinstatement of Hardy’s expired contract to develop off-shore gas resources. He currently is enforcing arbitral awards against property owned by Argentina located in Washington DC and suing Germany for expropriation of a US citizen's land without adequate compensation. And he recently won three cases for American victims of state-sponsored terrorism, including a $2.2 billion judgment against North Korea.

Mr. Bravin holds a B.S. degree from UCLA, summa cum laude; a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School; and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

He can be reached at mnb@msk.com

Jayanth’s educational repertoire has LL.B. Hons. (Cardiff, U.K.), LL.M. (Univ. of Texas at Austin, U.S.A. - Global Energy, International Arbitration and Environmental Law), F.I.C.A. (N. Delhi), M.C.E. (Civil Engineering - Water Resources & Environmental) U.S.A., formerly licensed as a Professional Engineer (U.S.A.), B.E. (Civil Engineering), India. He is Co-author of the book, The Foreign Investor and the Host Nation. Investor-State Arbitration - An Analysis. Focus on India’s Investment Treaty Law and Policy (2018).

He has also Lectured before the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal, NLSIU (Bengaluru), I.I.M.(B), Christ University (Bengaluru) and has been involved in litigation in district courts in Karnataka, and the high court of Karnataka. He has regularly contributed articles on judicial review and other legal topics in the I.C.A. Quarterly, Lawyers Update magazine, and Manupatra.

He can be reached at jaybalalaw@gmail.com