Anant Merathia, a practicing commercial disputes lawyer with about 18 years experience in India and Singapore started off his career with practice in civil and commercial laws in India in 2004. As a young lawyer, he was keen to learn about the contemporary laws of other jurisdictions. He thus pursued Masters in Laws in the National University of Singapore in 2005-06. After completing his Masters, he practiced as a registered foreign lawyer for some time in Singapore before moving back to India in 2009. He has over the years advised and represented clients on corporate and commercial litigations across forums. He strongly supports ADR mechanisms for dispute resolution.
Anant has been awarded the prestigious “Rising Star” Award in March 2016 by Legal Era Magazine at Mumbai. In 2022 he was listed amidst India’ Top Disputes Lawyers by Asian Legal Business. AMA, founded by Anant was recognized by ODR Ways & Niti Ayog for its outstanding contribution & work done in the field of Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and was awarded the APAC Insider 2022 Legal Awards under the category of ‘Best Corporate Law & ADR Practice – Tamil Nadu, India’.
Anant studied Economics as his first degree and graduated as a gold medalist from Loyola College, Chennai, India. He further went on study law at Chennai (Bachelors Degree in law) and was admitted as an Advocate in the Indian Bar in 2004. With a focus in international business & relations, he did a Masters degree in Foreign Trade (M.F.T) in India before graduating from National University of Singapore (NUS) with an LLM degree in 2006. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK.
Over his years of practice, he has freely and frankly expressed his views on various aspects of law be it the benefits and the need of ADR mechanisms in India as well as the shortcomings which had to be attended to. He has a keen interest in the challenges faced by family managed businesses and the issues that emerge with change in guard from one generation to the other. He has advised and interacted with several families whose businesses were marred with internal disputes and shareholder litigations and has strongly advocated amicable resolutions in these disputes. He believes that India is a land of family businesses, closely held companies and MSME’s, which cannot be ignored. Hence issues that crop up in these businesses are peculiar in nature and require a certain sensitive style of handling both from stakeholders and professionals.
Being academically oriented from his initial days, he always believed that good research, writing and teaching are important pillars of knowledge sharing. He is a prominent speaker on legal topics and has delivered guest lectures for several prestigious events or reputed institutions in India. He is also a regular contributor to the areas of legal development through articles and publications.
With his extensive background in corporate disputes and more so disputes relating to distressed companies, he took specific interest in the subject of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 when this law was notified. He believes that this Code is a landmark legislation that brought together multiple fragmented legislations under one umbrella thereby making it both effective and efficient for stakeholders especially when compared to the previous regimes dealing with financially distressed companies.
VISION FOR INDIA
Anant is a strong believer in green and clean energy. He further is a strong advocate of strengthening the norms of environmental, social and governance for companies and stronger emphasis on corporate social responsibility. He is of the view that the national goals become a part of the vision statement of every single corporate entity in the country and “Nation First” should be the underlying sentiment of businesses especially when India is on its path to becoming a $ 5 trillion economy in a couple of years.
Anant firmly believes that that India has an extremely promising future and will lead the world in many ways amongst which economic resilience and spiritual legacy of India would be key.
He is a believer of inclusive growth and has worked closely with several businesses especially from the MSME sector and understand their challenges and at the same time there importance and nation building. He is a strong supporter of the “make in India” movement and firmly believes that India has all that is required to become a global manufacturing hub especially with disruption and realignment of supply chains globally.
He believes that there is tremendous potential in the present India and there is significant amount of scope for improvement in the speed of the functioning of Indian judiciary through technology and digitalization.
He further believes that there has been a positive sea change in the manner in which Indians are viewed by the Western world as well as Southeast Asia. He is also strongly in favor of the national identity of Indians being given importance and is highly appreciative of the respect that the Indian passport has gained over the last few years due to the present leadership of the country. India and Indians are now seen as the “problem solvers” and “solution providers” to challenges in global economic issues, geopolitical issues and many more.
SPEAKING ASSIGNMENTS
Anant is a prominent speaker on legal topics and has delivered guest lectures at several prestigious events for reputed institutions in India. Some of them are listed below:
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
- Institute of Company secretaries of India
- Confederation of Indian industry
- Madras Chamber of Commerce and industry
- Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM)
- Bangalore chamber of industry and commerce (BCIC)
- Entrepreneurs Organization (EO)
- Indo Australian Chamber of Commerce
- Rotary International
- Round Table India
- Agratrade, Chennai
- Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation (FIEO)
- Federation of Indian Hire Purchase Associations
- South India Hire Purchase Associations