Sunil Seth, the co-founder and senior partner of Seth Dua & Associates, passed away yesterday (5 February) after a motorcycle accident.

He was 53 years old.

He had been riding on his motorcycle with a group of others early on Sunday morning, when he met with an accident between Manesar and Gurgaon, succumbing to his injuries before he could make it to hospital.

The firm he had started with managing partner Atul Dua has offices in Delhi, Noida, Bangalore and Mumbai now numbers around 40 lawyers.

Seth specialised primarily in cross-border transactions, projects and finance work.

Atul Dua commented: “Sunil’s loss has not only been a great loss to the profession but a personal loss for me. We have studied together since the age of 6 and started Seth Dua & Associates almost 19 years ago.”

Update-2: A prayer meeting will be held tomorrow (7 February) in Delhi:

Update-1: The Hindustan Times reported:

A person close to Seth said that he was riding a Harley Davidson bike for the first time and had gone out with a group of bikers. “He and Neeraj were left behind, while the other bikers went ahead. Harley bikes are heavy and a new rider needs to practice before hitting the road. He must have lost control over the bike and it crashed with the side of a barrier,” said a rider from another biking group.

Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.

According to Seth’s profile on Seth Dua’s website:

Sunil Seth is a Founder and Senior Partner, whose professional experience spans over 27 years in advising multinational and Indian corporations in setting up business operations in India either as joint ventures, wholly owned subsidiaries as green-field projects or through the Mergers and Acquisition route.

Sunil specializes as a transaction lawyer in the areas of cross-border investments, Indian corporate and commercial laws, foreign investment policy, government regulatory issues, transaction structuring, legal due diligence, negotiation assistance and transaction documentation.

Sunil has gained considerable experience working with various leading international law firms, banks and financial institutions on various types of Indian projects and cross-border commercial transactions including consortium finance, project finance and structured finance transactions, as well as private equity & venture capital funding through equity and debt instruments. Sunil also has considerable experience in PPP projects in India and has advised many international and domestic companies on very prestigious and high stake PPP projects in various infrastructure sectors including Railways/Metro, Urban Development, Water Projects etc.

Sunil has been retained by the Ministry of Housing, Government of India, for advice on various Constitutional and Administrative Law issues with respect to Real Estate. He has helped in drafting the ‘Real Estate (Regulation & development) Bill, 2011’ to ensure orderly growth and development of the Real Estate sector across India. He is one of the key contributors to a book titled ‘Joint Ventures and Mergers & Acquisitions in India - Legal and Tax Aspects’, which has been published by LexisNexis Butterworths.

Sunil is regularly invited to speak on legal issues at various international conferences

Sunil was also a Co- Chair for the Session “Defence Procurement & Policy” at the “Threading the Needle in U.S./India Deals: Safe Passage through Formidable Legal Risk” conference presented jointly by American Bar Association (ABA) and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) New Delhi, India, 2014

Sunil has contributed articles for books and journals published by Sweet & Maxwell, LexisNexis Butterworths and Euromoney.

He is a member of various leading international professional bodies such as the Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA), International Bar Association (IBA), LAWASIA, etc.

HONORARY POSITIONS HELD BY SUNIL INCLUDE:

• Regional Representative – India, International Bar Association (IBA) - Water Law Committee

• Vice Chairman, IPBA - Energy & Natural Resources Committee

• Vice President, Gurgaon Chamber of Commerce & Industry

• Member, ASSOCHAM Trade Committee

• Member, FICCI Joint Business Council

Artid: 8274