Law firm practice areas, grouped by the clients we act for

Our law firm practice areas by client

Most people arrive with a situation, not a legal category. So we group our work by who the client is.

Families and individuals

Marriages that have broken down, a death in the family, an accident, a purchase that went wrong. Divorce, maintenance and custody turn on the personal law of the couple, and our divorce lawyer India page sets out the routes. After a death, the first question is who inherits, under a will or the succession rules (wills and probate). The second is how the property is divided, by agreement or through a partition suit.

Injured people and bereaved families claim compensation before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT claims). Buyers of defective goods or services, and policyholders whose claim was refused, go to the consumer commission (consumer litigation).

Property buyers, owners, landlords and housing societies

A real estate lawyer does two kinds of work. Before a purchase it is checking: a title search of the deeds and land records, then the agreement and its registration. After something goes wrong it is a dispute. A builder who has not delivered (RERA complaints), a tenant or licensee who will not leave (landlord and tenant disputes), a trespasser, or a society that refuses to transfer a flat. Our property lawyer India page covers both halves.

NRIs and OCI cardholders

The law is the same as for a resident; the paperwork is not. An NRI acts through a Power of Attorney signed abroad, buys and inherits within the FEMA rules, and faces tax deducted at source when selling. Our NRI legal services page covers divorce and property for clients abroad.

Banks, NBFCs and other creditors

This is the court-facing side of a banking and finance lawyer's work. Secured lenders enforce under the SARFAESI Act and recover through the Debts Recovery Tribunal. Businesses owed money use summary suits, the commercial courts or, against a company, the insolvency route. All of it is on our debt recovery page. Before a loan, or after a decree, asset verification shows what a borrower actually owns, and a dishonoured cheque has its own criminal remedy (cheque bounce cases).

Insurers, fleet operators and vehicle owners

On the other side of an accident claim, the work is testing the claim: the policy, the driving licence and permit, the claimant's income and disability evidence. Where the policy was breached, an insurer that has to pay the victim can ask the tribunal for leave to recover from the owner. The MACT claims page covers this defence work too.

Employers and companies

Since 21 November 2025, appointment letters, standing orders, wages and exits are governed by the four Labour Codes, which replaced most of the older central labour laws. Our employment laws practice drafts for employers and advises employees on termination and unpaid dues. Companies, banks and NBFCs also bring us suspected fraud and money-laundering questions (corporate investigations and AML advisory, fraud risk management).

Investors, family wealth and fund managers

Here the work is legal and documentary, never investment advice. For portfolio managers it means SEBI compliance and client documents (PMS compliance). For families it means trusts, wills and the papers that hold a portfolio together (wealth management legal advisory, trust registration). We are not registered with SEBI as an investment adviser and do not recommend products.

Which practice area does your problem fall under?

Start with the kind of proceeding, not the subject. It fixes who decides, how evidence is taken and how long the matter runs. Almost everything we see falls into one of six types.

One matter can sit in two rows. A cheque given against a loan that bounces supports a criminal complaint and a civil or DRT claim for the same money, and the two run side by side.

How to work out the right practice area and forum

We run every new matter through the same five questions before advising on the next step. You can do the first two yourself before you call.

1. Which side are you on? Creditor or debtor, buyer or seller, claimant or insurer. The same Act gives each side different rights and different deadlines.
2. Which document does the dispute turn on? A loan agreement, a sale deed, a will, a policy, a marriage certificate. Its terms often choose the forum for you, through an arbitration clause or a jurisdiction clause.
3. Does a special law take the case away from the civil court? Section 34 of the SARFAESI Act does this for a bank's enforcement measures, and Section 79 of the RERA Act for anything the RERA authority can decide.
4. What is the time limit? Most money claims must be filed within three years under the Limitation Act, 1963. A challenge to a bank's possession notice has 45 days, and a cheque bounce complaint must follow within a month of the notice period running out.
5. What is the first move? A negotiated settlement, a legal notice or a filing. If something needs stopping, such as a sale of the property, the filing with an application for interim relief comes first.

When one problem crosses several practice areas

The hardest files start in one area and spill into others. Three patterns come up again and again.

A death in the family

Succession comes first: is there a will, does it need probate, who are the legal heirs. Then the property: a family settlement or partition, fresh entries in the heirs' names, and often a sale. If one heir had borrowed against the property, a lender is in the picture too.

A loan that has gone bad

For a lender, SARFAESI enforcement, a DRT application and a cheque bounce complaint can all be live at once. For the borrower and guarantors, each forum has its own deadline. And an admission made in one can be read against them in another.

A marriage that ends across borders

Divorce, maintenance and custody go to the family court. The flat in India, the joint accounts and the Power of Attorney given in better times have to be dealt with separately. The spouse abroad may also face proceedings in the country where they live, which needs a lawyer licensed there.

We keep such a file with one advocate, so that each step in one forum is checked against the others before it is taken.

Where we work: Sanpada, Navi Mumbai and online

Every practice area is run from one office, at Haware Intelligentia Park, Sanpada, Navi Mumbai. We attend courts, tribunals and authorities in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai. Clients in Pune, Bengaluru, Delhi or abroad work with us by phone, WhatsApp, video call and email.

Some practice areas have city pages because the court or the land records differ from city to city. Those pages describe the local system; they are not offices. Much of the work is not tied to a place at all: advice, drafting, title opinions, and many RERA and consumer filings, which are now made online. If a hearing has to take place outside Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, we tell you at the first consultation how it will be handled and what it adds to the fee.

Key laws behind our practice areas

• Family, succession and trusts: Hindu Marriage Act, 1955; Special Marriage Act, 1954; Hindu Succession Act, 1956; Indian Succession Act, 1925; Indian Trusts Act, 1882.
• Property and housing: Transfer of Property Act, 1882; Registration Act, 1908; Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016; Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999; Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960.
• Lending and recovery: SARFAESI Act, 2002; Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act, 1993; Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016; Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.
• Claims: Consumer Protection Act, 2019; Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, whose claims chapter was rewritten with effect from 1 April 2022.
• Criminal law: the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, in force since 1 July 2024 in place of the IPC, the CrPC and the Indian Evidence Act.
• Business and investment: the four Labour Codes; Companies Act, 2013; Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002; SEBI Act, 1992 and the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 2020; FEMA, 1999 and the Non-Debt Instruments Rules, 2019 for NRIs.

Where an Act has been replaced, our advice cites the new provision and gives the old section in brackets. Most notices, and every older judgment, still use the old numbers.

Who handles matters in each practice area

Every matter is handled by the firm's two advocates. Adv. Swanand Pandit (BLS, LL.B, LL.M, PGDBM, JAIIB) is an Advocate of the High Court of Bombay. His JAIIB, a banking qualification, is useful in lender and recovery work as much as the LL.M is in property and family matters. Adv. Ashok Ingle (B.A. LL.B) works alongside him.

The firm has practised since 2010 and has acted for 500+ clients. You deal with the advocate who reads your papers, not a call centre.

What are the different practice areas of a law firm?

A practice area is a group of matters that need the same law and the same skills. Large firms divide their work into dozens: corporate, capital markets, banking and finance, disputes, tax, competition, intellectual property, employment and real estate, often with separate partners for each. Smaller firms group more broadly, usually into litigation and advisory work.

The divisions are not fixed by any rule. Some firms split by industry, such as banking or real estate. Others split by the type of work, such as disputes or transactions. Ours is a client-led split, because a family, a lender and a fund manager need different things even when the statute is the same.