December 01, 2020
Having founded Dua Associates over thirty-six years ago, Mr. Dua is currently the Chairman of the Firm, which has full services offices across eight metropolitan cities of India. His responsibilities include providing guidance to the over 250 professionals of the firm for its further growth and development, including providing long-term vision. He engages with over seventy partners and counsels and ensures that the management of the firm vests in the executive committee and sub-committees which are empowered to take decisions in their respective domains, so the Firm continues to retain its recognized leadership position.
The Firm led by Mr Dua has been representing overseas businesses and negotiating and structuring their inbound investments. His experience and expertise encompass corporate and commercial law, corporate finance, securities law, infrastructure, public policy and administration, governance and ethics, foreign investments and collaborations, disinvestments and privatization of public sector undertakings, mergers and acquisitions and exchange control regulations.
A key task for Mr Dua as the Chairman of Dua Associates and Dua Consulting, a standalone business and public affairs practice group, is sustaining the growth momentum while strengthening the firm’s domestic and international network of alliances with professionally recognized bodies in keeping with well-established practices in the fields of law, policy formulation and public affairs.
Mr Dua has advised major US corporations’ foray into India like General Electric, General Motors, AT&T, McDonald’s, Timex and 3M Corporation, The Boeing Company, Rolls Royce Plc., Rio Tinto, Linde AG, Estee Lauder, Gilead, Whirlpool, Becton Dickinson, Gillette, Dow Chemical Corporation and DuPont amongst others. He also represented the influx of major companies from Japan including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba and Mitsui & Co.
In 2019 Mr. Dua was recognized as being “The Most-Influential & Significant Lawyer” by The Legal 500. Chambers & Partners, a global ranking body, has ranked Mr Dua in their APAC 2021 Guide for his individual noteworthy contributions in the General Corporate & M&A practice area. He has been recognized as a legal icon and included in India Business Law Journal’s A-List of top Indian lawyers each year for the last four years. He has also been recognized by Forbes India in its Legal Powerlist of Top Managing Partners for the last three years consecutively.
Early 2020, Mr Dua received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contribution and Excellence in the field of Law. In September 2021, Mr Dua was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award – Law Firms 2021, by an eminent panel of jury members, led by Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General of India, for his hard work, sincerity and dedication towards the profession.
Mr Dua was awarded the Samman Patra by the Govt. of India, Ministry of Finance and The National Council of Jurists Award in recognition of his contribution to the development of Corporate Laws in India. In 2018, Mr Dua was conferred the Award “Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy” for his contribution to the promotion of bilateral business ties between Italy and India.
He is the Chairman of the Board of Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Limited and an Independent Director on the same board. A founding member of the American Chamber of Commerce in India, he is an invitee to its national Executive Board. Mr Dua is also a member of the National Committee on Legal Services of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and one of the Senior Vice Presidents of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) and among the Chairpersons of the Legal Reforms Committee. He also joined the Board of Governors of IILM Law School, IILM University Gurugram effective 20 Sep 2023.
Mr Dua actively championed diversity, inclusion and equality which are now integral to all aspects of the Firm’s practice. The Chairman has been the moving spirit behind the Firm’s continued support to Him Jyoti Vocational Institute for education of under-privileged girl children, an initiative which is now institutionalized and sustained by the Firm’s professionals.
An avid tennis player Mr Dua’s sporting interests are pursued as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Lawn Tennis Club of India and a Senior Vice President of the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association.
An Honours graduate of St Stephen’s College, Mr Dua also holds a master’s degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics. He lives in New Delhi with his wife Amrita and daughter Shreya who is currently pursuing her academic interests in ancient history after obtaining an MPhil from Oxford University, UK.
