Presentations

Lakshmi qualified as a barrister in England and Wales and is a corporate commercial lawyer.  She has been both in private practice and served as a general counsel in Malaysia and Australia.

Lakshmi has industry experience in various strategy, commercial and general management roles within leading multinational corporations.  She has led teams across jurisdictions on matters ranging from acquisitions and divestments, management of key IP assets, regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings, to international arbitration and dispute resolution.  She has a keen interest in governance and board responsibilities, and has advised boards of directors and management on best practices.

Lakshmi is the current Chair of the Corporate Counsel Committee of the IPBA.

Paolo Grandi is a partner at RPLT, where he focuses on complex commercial and corporate matters with a strong cross‑border component. He advises multinational clients on corporate investments, business unit acquisitions and disposals, capital market operations, and joint venture structures. His practice is marked by a multidisciplinary approach to drafting and negotiating sophisticated contracts across industries including energy, technology, manufacturing, fashion, and real estate.

Paolo also has extensive experience in litigation and arbitration arising from commercial and corporate disputes. He represents clients before courts and arbitral tribunals in Italy and abroad, with particular expertise in cases involving environmental regulation, intellectual property, and technology‑related offenses. His team is active in litigation funding, risk assessment, and the design of strategic dispute‑resolution frameworks.

Samar practises as an arguing counsel, primarily before the Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi. His practice focuses on arbitration, arbitration-related litigation, and enforcement proceedings.

Samar regularly appears in complex commercial disputes. He has acted as lead counsel in several significant matters, including representing subsidiaries of the Sovereign Wealth Funds of Qatar and Malaysia in proceedings arising out of arbitral awards valued at USD 197 million and INR 1,100 crore respectively. His experience also includes acting for an Australian coal mining company in disputes concerning a USD 120 million ICC arbitral award; representing the Republic of Maldives and the Republic of Tanzania in arbitration-related court proceedings; and advising a Chinese company in enforcement proceedings relating to a USD 150 million award arising from a power plant project.

He also sits as an arbitrator and is empanelled with the Delhi International Arbitration Centre (DIAC).

Masafumi Kodama is a partner at Kitahama Partners in Osaka, Japan. He received his LL.B from the University of Tokyo, started his practice in 1993, and received LL.M degree from Cornell Law School. After graduation from Cornell, he worked in New York and Singapore for a little more than a year. He has worked as counsel and arbitrator in a number of international commercial arbitration cases, as well as counsel for execution / setting aside cases before Japanese courts. With such experience, he regularly advises numerous multi-national companies on arbitration, has written and lectured for a variety of arbitration and dispute resolution issues, including the Japan Chapter of “World Arbitration Reporter” issued by Juris Publishing. He was the IPBA Committee Coordinator between 2016 and 2018, has been a Council member of Japan Association of Arbitrators since 2011, and an ICC Court member since 2024.

Martin is one of Asia’s leading litigation, financial services regulatory and corporate governance lawyers, with over 35 years of experience in the region. He is the chair of Davis Polk’s Asia practice and head of our Asia litigation team. His practice includes complex litigation, dispute resolution, regulatory, white collar defense and fintech/regtech matters, with extensive experience advising leading corporates, the financial services industry and government bodies.

Martin has a strong relationship with the regulators in Hong Kong and substantial experience with securities and banking regulators in China, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore.

He has top rankings from Chambers, IFLR1000, Legal 500 Asia Pacific and Benchmark Litigation, and he is on Asian Legal Business’s list of “Asia’s Top 15 Litigators.” Sources quoted by Chambers describe him as “the financial services king and one of the hardest-working lawyers in Hong Kong” and “in another league to everyone else.”

Janice Goh is a partner in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice of Clifford Chance Asia, a Formal Law Alliance in Singapore between Clifford Chance Pte Ltd and Cavenagh Law LLP. She specialises in commercial dispute resolution, regulatory compliance matters and white-collar crime. Janice also represents clients in court proceedings, particularly in relation to civil claims arising from fraud, investigations and breach of regulations. Janice is particularly experienced in advising on investigations and risk management in the financial regulatory space. She is also experienced in employment law including dealing with employee claims which may arise from disciplinary proceedings in the aftermath of investigations.

Muhtar Ali is an Indonesian leading lawyer with extensive experience in TMT, corporate, governance and litigation with experience as in-house counsel for a multitude of industries.
With professional experience of more than 25 years, Muhtar’s expertise in litigation covers dispute resolution including international and domestic arbitration, civil litigation, competition, and bankruptcy.

Muhtar began practising law in 1999 and was admitted to the Indonesian bar in 2002, a qualified Bankruptcy Receiver and Administrator of Postponement Debt Repayment Obligations (PKPU) (2011), a qualified IP Consultant (2015), and a qualified mediator (2025).

Muhtar has represented clients in the arbitration proceedings in BANI Arbitration Center and ICC as claimant or respondent, competition proceedings, civil litigations, and bankruptcy proceedings.

Muhtar was named one of the Super 50 TMT Lawyers 2025, Legal Expert Powering Asia’s Tech Revolution oleh Asian Legal Business Thomson Reuters (March 2025) https://www.legalbusinessonline.com/features/rankings-alb-super-50-tmt-2025, and was named as one of the Most Recommended Lawyers by Hukumonline.com in 2023, 2024, and
2025.

Muhtar is also a lecturer in Arbitration Law and Commercial Contract at Faculty of Law, Gadjah Mada University, and is also