 Shahana
Basu Kanodia
Partner, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP
Shahana is a Partner in the firm’s
Business Law Department and Chair of the South Asia Practice
Group. Her practice areas include general corporate matters
with a focus on cross border business transactions, including
mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity
and other strategic investments.
Notable Experience
Shahana’s work includes both domestic and cross-border
transactions.
Representative transactions include the following:
- Assisted an aviation client in understanding the
complexities of the foreign direct investment regime in
the aviation sector in India and in entering into a joint
venture agreement with an Indian company.
- Represented a large Indian automotive company in
providing general corporate law advice with respect to its
distributorship agreements in the US.
- Represented an US biopharmaceutical company in its
sale to an European pharmaceutical group.
- Represented a large Luxembourg based telecommunications
company in the sale of its Pakistani subsidiary to a large
Chinese telecom company.
- Represented a Dubai company in its acquisition of
the Government of Malta’s majority interest in a Maltese
telecom company.
- Represented the largest human services company in
the world in setting up its joint venture with a leading
global talent development and IT training company in India
to deliver application software development and maintenance
solutions to it’s clients.
- Represented an Indian company which is a leading
global provider of business process services management
in its acquisition of a Delaware company engaged in the
business of medical and dental outsourcing.
- Represented a large Indian corporate in its acquisition
of petrochemical assets in Germany.
- Represented a leading global private equity firm
in its acquisition of the world’s largest producer
of alkylamines and derivatives.
- Represented a large Indiana insurance company in
its merger with a large Delaware company which created one
of the largest managed-care providers in the US.
- Represented a large Indian media company in its
acquisition of an Illinois corporation providing telephone
card services to India.
Other Distinctions
Awards and Honors
Shahana has received many scholarships and awards in her
career including, amongst others, the Indian National Merit
Scholarship, the Cambridge-Nehru Scholarship, the Dharam
Hinduja Scholarship, the prestigious Percy Pemberton prize
for the most distinguished first year student in Trinity
College, Cambridge University, the University of Chicago
Dean’s Fellowship and Century Scholarship and the
Yale Law School’s prestigious Howard M. Holtzmann
International Arbitration Award. Shahana was also included
in Strathmore’s Who’s Who Listing for Professionals.
Recent Speaking Engagements and Publications
Shahana is a frequent speaker at domestic and international
events on issues relating to foreign investment, cross border
mergers and acquisitions, international transactions and
international public law.
Shahana is Chair, India Track for the TiECON
East Conference 2010 "Winning in a New Climate,"
to be held in Boston on May 27-28, 2010.
Shahana was a panelist on "Investment
Strategy - Challenges and the Way Forward After the Recession"
at the New York State Bar Association, International Section,
Conference held in Mumbai, India on March 25, 2010.
She introduced the documentary film "The
Reckoning" on the International Criminal Court and
lead a question and answering session on International Public
Law and the signifigance and challenges of the International
Criminal Court after the movie at the Peabody Essex Museum
on January 17, 2010.
Shahana was a panelist on "Cross Cultural
Issues in International Transactions" at the Licensing
Executive Society's Annual Conference held in San Francisco,
California on October 20, 2009.
She organized and moderated a panel on
Guantanamo Bay for the Yale Law School Association of New
England in Boston on March 26, 2009. The panel presented
a historical view of several Guantanamo cases, a detailed
description of the legal issues arising from these cases,
and several fascinating perspectives on some of the challenges
and options for the Obama Administration.
Shahana is fluent in Hindi and Bengali
and has functional understanding of Urdu and Punjabi.
Before Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge
Prior to joining the firm, Shahana practiced with global
law firms including the Boston office of WilmerHale LLP,
the London office of Linklaters LLP and the New York office
of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Shahana has represented
US and non-US acquirors, sellers, private equity clients,
target companies, financial advisors and majority stockholders
in a wide variety of industries and in different types of
transactions, including negotiated transactions for public
and private companies, spin-offs, restructuring, strategic
investments and joint ventures. Shahana has also advised
clients on US securities laws issues applied to international
equity issues, including Rule 144A and Regulation S transactions
and mergers and acquisitions.
During law school, Shahana completed a
clerkship at the Office of the Prosecutor for the United
Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
in the Hague, Netherlands where she drafted memoranda on
complex international egal issues, including command and
control responsibility and the status of civilians under
the Geneva Conventions.
While at Yale Law School, Shahana served
as Director of the Lowenstein International Human Rights
Project and Law School Senator at the Yale Graduate &
Professional Students’ Senate. She was also the Submissions
Editor for the Yale Journal of International Law and the
Yale Journal of Human Rights and Development.
Besides Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge
Shahana serves on the Executive Board of the Yale Law School
Association and the Steering Committee of the Yale Law School
Association of Greater New England and is active in the
Yale-India Initiatives. She also serves on the Steering
Committees of the International Law Section and the M&A
Committee of the Boston Bar Association and is a Fellow
of the Cambridge Commonwealth Society in England. Shahana
was a member of the New England Finance and Steering Committee
for President Obama. She is a Charter Member of The Indus
Entrepreneurs and serves on the Board of the Community Dispute
Settlement Center and the Board of the Children’s
Advocacy Center for Suffolk County. She also serves on the
Advisory Board of The Loomba Foundation and is an Overseer
of the Peabody Essex Museum.
Shahana is passionate about education issues
and mentoring the youth. She has participated in the College
Application Workshops for Cathedral High School Students
in South End, interviewed high school students for admission
to Yale College, provided career counseling in law for the
Upward Bound Program in Boston and participated in the Discovering
Justice Program in Boston. Shahana has provided free legal
advice to small businesses and community groups through
Hackney Legal Services in London and mentored and counseled
students at the Crossroads School for Child Development
in New York City. She has also provided pro bono legal services
to the board of directors of Reach Charter School in New
York City and has researched and designed youth and adult
education programs for a public television program in India.
Shahana enjoys reading, traveling, music,
performance arts, playing bridge and is an avid collector
of art and antiques.
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