Resolve Business conflicts with Strategic Dispute Resolution

Not every legal issue can be anticipated and addressed during the drafting stage. A vendor walks away from a perfectly negotiated contract, a co-founder accuses you of oppression and mismanagement after a board meeting gone bad, and a regulator picks up a particular transaction for investigation, regardless of your due diligence in structuring compliance around the rest of the business. In each instance, the concern shifts from avoiding disputes to winning them, or, at the very least, limiting their impact on the business and reputation of the parties involved.

The work of a dispute resolution lawyer actually begins not with drafting a contract or designing the corporate structure, but as soon as the dispute arises and needs to be dealt with. Early assessment of case and analysing litigation strategy beforehand helps in reducing risk before the legal proceedings begin. Shareholder disputes can last for months and result in oppression proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal, alleging mismanagement and demanding buy-outs while the company operations remain stalled till the resolution of delays in shareholder disputes. A simple vendor agreement can escalate into a multi-year arbitration where one party relies on the force majeure clause and the other disregards it. A regulatory disclosure can result in an action before SEBI or CCI, with further punitive damages being levied and reputational fallout continuing long after the disclosure was made. The firing of just one employee can lead to years of industrial tribunal litigation with liabilities going far beyond the employee and penetrating the corporate structure.  The firm of Corrida Legal gives advice to and represents its clients at any stage of this process from mediation and negotiation of settlement to the drafting of releases and waivers that stand up if something similar occurs again.

Where appropriate, Corrida Legal also advises and assists clients in arbitration, both domestic and international, including statements of claim and defence, applications for interim relief and emergency arbitration, jurisdictional challenges, and enforcement of awards, where applicable, under the New York Convention and UNCITRAL Model Law. In cases where disputes cannot be resolved through alternative dispute resolution, Corrida Legal represents its clients before the NCLT, the High Courts, and the Supreme Court in cases concerning shareholders disputes, insolvency and liquidation petitions under the IBC, regulatory actions by SEBI, RBI, and the CCI, and employment tribunals concerning POSH and related matters. Where a dispute takes on a regulatory or criminal colouring, be it before the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI, or the Economic Offences Wing, Corrida Legal advises businesses and individuals on dispute resolution strategies in response to investigations, particularly relating to financial statement fraud, FEMA violations, and money laundering under PMLA. All of these matters demand a nuanced understanding of dispute resolution strategies, as well as the ability to manage, control, and mitigate the fallout from disputes at each stage of the process. While some issues can be anticipated and negotiated away during the drafting process, there are few disputes that can truly be eliminated at the source. The realities of doing business are such that sometimes a dispute is inevitable, whether it takes the form of a counterparty walking away from a deal or a regulator picking up a file for no discernible reason.

At such a point, the dispute resolution strategies available to address each issue become critically important, and it is here that Corrida Legal adds value by applying the same level of scrutiny and due diligence to dispute resolution as it would to a transactional deal, managing the dispute as a matter that has to be controlled and navigated towards an optimum outcome for the client.