9th Edition Of The RMLNLU International Legal Essay Competition And Conference On Labour Laws ("RILEC")

About the Event

Pursuant to the Call for Papers released in September 2021, the Committee received numerous submissions from reputed law schools across India. After jointly conducting several rounds of review with Khaitan & Co, three papers were selected to be presented at the virtual conference. The papers selected for presentation are:

1. 'The Invisible Labour Force and the Foundation of the 'Productive Economy': Recognising Women's Unpaid Labour' by Avanti Deshpande.
2. 'Strengthening the Socially Informed Model of Arbitration under the Industrial Code, 2020: A Constructive Critique' by Aaryan Mohan & Anannya Chitranshi.
3. 'A Gig-Antic Step towards Making India Labour-Friendly: Extension of Social Security to Gig Workers' by Mehak Jain.

The abovementioned presentations will be evaluated by a panel of distinguished judges from Khaitan & Co. The presentation would be followed by a round of questions which will help the attendees develop a better understanding of the recent developments in the field of employment and labour laws. The Committee envisages this event as an endeavour to encourage and promote legal scholarship in the area of employment and labour law.

About the Journal Committee

The Committee was constituted with the objective of promoting legal research and writing. Apart from conducting the RMLNLU International Legal Essay Writing Competition every year, the Committee annually publishes two peer reviewed journals – the RMLNLU Law Review and the RMLNLU Journal on CMET (Communication, Media, Entertainment and Technology) Law. Both these journals publish articles, essays, case notes/comments and book reviews from contributors all over the world. The RMLNLU Law Review also runs a blog which provides a platform for people in the field to express their opinions on contemporary legal issues.

About Khaitan & Co

Founded in 1911, Khaitan & Co is among India's oldest and most prestigious full-service law firms. It is also one of the largest law firms, with over 600 professionals. The firm has an array of practice areas which include mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, banking and finance, debt capital markets, dispute resolution, white collar crimes, data privacy and protection, and competition/ anti-trust law. The firm has strong capabilities and deep industry knowledge across all its practice areas.

Over the years, Khaitan & Co has consolidated its position as a leading law firm in the field of employment and labour law. Its Employment, Labour and Benefits practice provides commercially oriented and practical advice on areas and events around business sale and acquisitions, change of ownership, employee benefits including equity based incentive schemes, employment agreements and policies, workplace diversity and discrimination issues. Additionally, the practice specialises in contract labour and alternate employment arrangements, whistle blower complaints, employee grievance redressal, workforce restructuring, staff re-classification and mobility, workplace health and safety issues as well as immigration advisory. As recognition for the pioneering work of the firm in the field of labour and employment law, the Employment, Labour and Benefits (ELB) practice at the Firm has been ranked as Tier 1 by Legal 500 Asia Pacific in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, won In-House Counsel Community Award for Labour & Employment Firm of the Year 2021, IBLJ 2021 Best Overall Law Firm – Employment & Labour, Labour & Employment Law Firm of the Year 2020-21 award by Legal Era and, also won the IDEX Employment law firm of the year 2019 award. The ELB practice in the Firm has also been recognized and honorably ranked by Chambers and Partners Asia Pacific in 2019 and 2020.

About the Judges

Mr. Anshul Prakash is a Partner at Khaitan & Co's Mumbai office and leads the firm's Employment, Labour and Benefits practice. He advises various prominent domestic and international clients on numerous employment law and related matters inter alia concerning workforce management, social security, industrial relations, workplace harassment and discrimination, structuring benefits and incentives, health and safety, internal inquiries and workforce restructuring.

He also leads the firm's thought leadership initiative on advocacy and knowledge sharing in the employment and labour law space and actively shares insights on evolving jurisprudence in the employment and labour law space in several industry publications, print media and public speaking events organised by industry bodies.

He has been ranked as the Leading Individual lawyer for Labour and Employment by Legal 500 in the Rankings for 2022, awarded for Asia Law Client Service Excellence in the field of Employment and Labour laws for 2020, honourably ranked in Chambers & Partners Asia Pacific 2021, awarded recognition in 2020 amongst BW BusinessWorld Legal 40 under 40 Best Lawyers & Legal Influencers in India, recognized in Forbes India Legal Powerlist 2020 as Top Individual Lawyer (Labour & Employment) and recognized and listed for outstanding client services and work amongst ALB India 2021 Super 50 Lawyers.

Mr. Jeevan Ballav Panda is a Partner in the Dispute Resolution and Employment, Labour & Benefits practice group in the NCR office. He brings with him more than 13 years of experience with a focus on commercial litigation, arbitration and employment. He is also empanelled as an Arbitrator at the Delhi International Arbitration Centre (DIAC).

Mr. Jeevan focuses on handling complex civil and contractual disputes, commercial litigation and arbitration and related pre litigation advisory. Mr. Jeevan also regularly argues matters before Courts and arbitral tribunals. Recently, Mr. Jeevan has successfully acted for MNCs and PSUs in high stake arbitration and litigation against government entities and private parties and between private players particularly in the railway, construction, infrastructure, power and hospitality sector.

Mr. Jeevan also focuses on labour and employment advisory and litigation involving structuring senior management contracts and exits, disciplinary/ domestic inquiries, sexual harassment at workplace, reorganisation and trade union related issues, compliances under various labour legislations including those relating to social security benefits, industrial disputes, termination, transfers, confidentiality, non-solicitation and non-compete clauses. Recently, Mr. Jeevan has successfully represented MNCs in civil suits against trade unions disrupting business operations through strikes and anti-social activities and in writ petitions and quasi-judicial proceedings involving high stake provident fund inquiries and exemption issues.

Mr. Jeevan has featured in the Asian Legal Business Super 50 Lawyers India list in 2020 and 2021. Legal500 Asia Pacific recognised him as a Recommended Lawyer for Employment and Labour laws practice.

Mr. Deepak Kumar is a Partner in the Employment, Labour and Benefits practice group in the Mumbai office. Mr. Deepak has advised and assisted several multinational and domestic clients on a range of contentious and non-contentious employment and labour matters concerning workforce and benefits restructuring, managing industrial relations, strategizing India entries and exits, closures, downsizing, employee transfers under M&A transactions and internal business reorganisations, among others. Mr. Deepak also specialises in advising offshore clients on structuring India entry strategy, business setup and engagement of personnel in India, and implementation of global ESOPs and other incentive and benefit plans. Mr. Deepak is a regular speaker at leading industry bodies and forums on regulatory and policy developments. He contributes on trends in employment law space and speaks on a range of employment and labour law aspects at sessions.

Mr. Deepak has been acknowledged for his experience and expertise by Asian Legal Business (ALB) in their India Rising Stars Rankings (2021) and The Legal 500 (Legalease) Asia Pacific 2022 Rankings as Recommended Lawyer in the Labour & Employment practice.

Registration

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Please note that only registered attendees shall be provided with certificates.

Contact Information

In case of queries, please feel free to contact any of the people mentioned below:

• Aditya Pattanayak: +91 9818849520
• Harsh Agarwal: +91 9399831636
• Dharmesh Basedia: +91 6370583783