Sunila is a senior partner at AZB & Partners, India’s most prominent full-service law firm, with offices in Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, and Pune.
After completing honours degree in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, she did law from Faculty of Law, Delhi University. In 1992, when she started practising corporate law, India was starting its economic liberalisation. Initial decade was spent advising clients on joint ventures, technical collaborations, technology transfer arrangements and obtaining Government approvals. In 2000, she did a master’s in law from Australia’s University of Queensland. After returning to India, she briefly joined J. Sagar & Associates, however, by 2003, she returned to Ajay Bahl & Co. which became AZB & Partners in 2004. AZB & Partners was a result of merger between Delhi-based Ajay Bahl & Co. and Mumbai-based CZB & Partners.
Over last two decades, Sunila’s focus has been on general advisory practise and now heads a team of 25 lawyers. While her area of expertise is employment laws, her team also provides legal advice related to almost any law – whether it is foreign investment regulations, drones, advertising, or cryptocurrency. Three major practice areas covered specifically by Sunila’s team are:
• Employment laws – soon to be overhauled with introduction of labour codes in India;
• Information technology, e-commerce, fintech, cryptocurrency
• Privacy and data protection.
Sunila’s extensive experience in advising clients on all kinds of problematic employee issues, including critical investigations in sensitive areas like workplace sexual harassment; violation of code of ethics or standards of business conduct; tricky senior employee exits, gives her a pragmatic approach offering feasible solutions to clients which is greatly appreciated.
Her passion for doing more translates into pro bono activities of providing trainings on Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and The Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH Act) in collaboration with NGOs.
Having participated in multiple events over the years, few significant ones are:-
• As a speaker at a session on “Gender guidance for UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights – from Paper to Practice” at the 8th annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland in November 2019. Her paper showcased how the POSH Act is a step in the right direction for meeting the foundational principles of UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights – to prevent, investigate, punish and redress human rights abuses by businesses through effective policies and legislation.
• Panel Speaker in two-part Webinars conducted by Association of Corporate Investigators (ACi) on POSH on October 8, and December 10, 2020.
• Co-hosted a webinar on the POSH Act with Thomson Reuters Foundation through TrustLaw in January 2019 with live Q&A session from numerous participating NGOs.
• Panelist in a Symposium on Business and Human Rights organized by Advocates for International Development (A4ID) on November 10, 2017 with the theme “Leadership in Responsible Business: Developments, Trends and Best Practices”.
AZB & Partners was founded in 2004 with a clear purpose to provide reliable, practical and full-service advice to clients across sectors. Having grown steadily since inception, the Firm now has four offices across India and an accomplished and driven team of 430 lawyers committed to delivering best-in-class legal solutions to help clients achieve their objectives. Clients include Fortune 500 entities, MNCs, Investment Banks, PE firms and more.
