Diwan Advocates

Delhi, India  |  Full-Service Legal Practice

A company receives a CCI dawn raid at 9 in the morning. By 9:15, they need to know what investigators can and cannot take, what employees should and should not say, and whether any of the documents on the server are legally privileged. They do not need a firm that handles competition law occasionally. They need one that has done this before.

A founder signs a term sheet for Series A funding from a Singapore-based investor. The cap table has three co-founders, one of whom has left, two ESOP tranches that were never formally issued, and a convertible note from 2022 whose conversion terms nobody documented properly. The investor finds all of it in due diligence. The deal is not dead. But it needs fixing, fast, by people who understand both the Indian company law position and what the investor needs to see.

A woman in Delhi receives a court summons from a family court abroad. Her husband filed for divorce three months ago without telling her. She did not know the proceedings existed until the summons arrived. She has two children in school in Delhi and property jointly held with her husband. She needs to understand within 48 hours what her rights are, whether the Indian courts have jurisdiction, and what she should do first.

Three clients. Three completely different areas of law. One common thread: when a serious legal matter arrives, the quality of the lawyers you have matters more than anything else.

Diwan Advocates is a full-service law firm based in Delhi. We work across 45+ practice areas, from corporate transactions and tax to criminal defence, family law, data privacy, competition, environment, and entertainment. We advise businesses, founders, individuals, and institutions. The lawyers who advise on your matter are the lawyers who appear in court on it.

What We Do: Our Practice Areas

Why Clients Choose Diwan Advocates

How We Can Help You

If you run a business

We help with company formation, shareholders agreements, investment transactions, and merger clearances. We draft and review the commercial contracts your business depends on. We advise on GST, direct tax, and transfer pricing. When a dispute arises, with a supplier, a customer, a competitor, or a regulator, we handle it.

If you are a founder or startup

We structure equity, ESOP schemes, and term sheets. We handle FEMA compliance for foreign investment. We advise on data privacy and technology contracts from the early stage, before problems accumulate. We have worked with companies from incorporation through to acquisition.

If you are an individual

We handle family law matters across all personal law frameworks with the discretion they require. We advise on property purchases, succession planning, and wills. We represent individuals in criminal proceedings, including bail, trial, and appeal. We advise NRIs on the Indian legal implications of decisions made abroad.

If you are facing regulatory action

We defend companies and individuals in CCI investigations, SEBI enforcement proceedings, Income Tax prosecutions, SFIO fraud investigations, and data protection enforcement. We also advise on how to avoid regulatory action in the first place through properly structured compliance programmes.

If you are in a dispute

We appear before the Supreme Court, High Courts, NCLT, NCLAT, NGT, commercial courts, family courts, and consumer forums. We handle domestic and international arbitration. We obtain urgent interim relief when it is needed quickly. We also know when negotiating a settlement is the better outcome and pursue it without hesitation.

If you work in a creative or technology industry

We advise creators, platforms, labels, studios, athletes, gaming companies, and AI developers on the law that governs their work. We handle copyright disputes, personality rights protection, OTT licensing, defamation defence, DPDPA compliance, and technology M&A. We understand the industries we advise.

The Integrated Advantage

Most significant legal matters touch more than one area of law. A factory that receives a closure order from the pollution control board may also face a criminal complaint against its directors, a claim from affected residents before the NGT, a lender demanding compliance under its loan covenants, and a tax assessment disputing its remediation expenses, all at the same time. A single-practice firm cannot handle that. A firm with disconnected practice groups gives each part to a different team that does not speak to the other.

At Diwan Advocates, our practice areas work together. The taxation team is involved when a family law matter has estate planning implications. The competition team is involved when a commercial contract contains potentially anti-competitive clauses. The environment team and the company law team coordinate when a listed company faces both regulatory and market disclosure obligations arising from the same environmental incident. This is not a marketing point. It is how we actually operate, and the clients who have needed it know the difference it makes.

The Legal Landscape Has Changed. We Are Ready for It.

Between 2023 and 2025, India enacted more significant new legislation than in any comparable period in recent memory. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced the Indian Penal Code. The Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita replaced the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam updated the law of evidence. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act created India's first comprehensive data protection regime. The Telecom Act replaced a framework from 1885. The Competition Amendment Act changed the merger control regime. The Van Adhiniyam changed forest clearance law. The Surrogacy Regulation Act changed family formation law.

Not every firm has kept pace. We have. Our advice reflects the law as it stands today, including the provisions that have not yet been tested in court, the regulations still being finalised, and the areas where the legislative intent is clear even if the procedural rules are not. We tell clients what is certain and what is not, and we advise them on how to act sensibly in both situations.

Whatever the legal matter, the question is always the same:

do you have lawyers who know this area, who will give you a straight answer,

and who will see it through to the end?

At Diwan Advocates, the answer is yes.

Diwan Advocates  |  Delhi, India