CHUGH LLP, SERVING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE AND INDIVIDUAL CLIENTS ON THEIR MOST PRESSING LEGAL CHALLENGES

CHUGH, LLP, SERVING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATE AND INDIVIDUAL CLIENTS ON THEIR MOST PRESSING LEGAL CHALLENGES

"Have a positive outlook in life, work hard, share, and leave this planet a better place" Navneet Chugh

The journey for Chugh, LLP started in 1986 under the fine supervision of Navneet Chugh, the founder of the company. In solitude during the treatment of his ailing mother in the United States of America, he decided on following his long-lasting dream to settle in this country.

His mother's treatment in 1981 was only a step in the ladder of his success and paved the route for his future successful endeavours.

Making Southern California his abode, he kick-started his vision to increase the global footprint of Chugh LLP the company that he finally founded in 1985. Five years late, in 1986, armed with a CPA and masters in business, he started the Firm.

Chugh at 44 took to law sensing massive potential and breaks into a smile when he recalls the small Chugh Firm that is celebrating its second decade of fruitful existence.

The Firm is one of the largest providers of services in corporate, immigration, taxation, litigation, and mergers and acquisition matters to global giants across America and India.

Today Navneet is the Chairman of the group and has offices in the US and India and continues to be in growth mode.

THE MAN BEHIND THE IDEA

Navneet Chugh, the Founder of Chugh, LLP can be best described as a go-getter, philanthropist, and a visionary who is an entrepreneur par excellence.

He is armed with hard facts and crunching numbers, an attorney and CPA with an MBA from the University of Southern California is also a graduate of the Senior Executive Leadership Program (SELP) from Harvard University.

His experience and expertise have landed him on a slew of Boards. He is on the board of HAB Bank, Dhandho Holdings, Pratham USA, in addition to being president of Pratham LA, and the Los Angeles based newspaper India Journal.

 SERVICES ON OFFER

Chugh, LLP is a full-service law firm with offices located in Los Angeles and Santa Clara in California, Edison in New Jersey, Atlanta in Georgia, Reason in Virginia, New York and Hyderabad in India.

The firm also has international affiliates located in India at Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad.

It has been in business since 1985 and specializes in the practice areas of Immigration, Corporate, Taxation, Litigation, Employment and Mergers, and Acquisition. They have a staff of 300 professionals, including 125 attorneys.

Also, through their accounting corporation, they have Certified Public Accountants, Chartered Accountants and Accounting clerks who work in tandem with their legal and immigration team.

THE COINING OF THE IDEA

Navneet Chugh sensed the huge scope of corporate work like setting up new companies, estate planning and doing will amongst others.

That is where he wanted to be. Today Chugh makes his living mainly as an attorney serving clients in places as diverse as Silicon Valley, New York and an affiliate in Chennai and Bangalore, India, based out of Los Angeles.

They serve a plethora of clients all over the world. And affiliated with a firm in India for three reasons – "they want to be a truly global law firm, they want to work for U.S. multinationals in India, and they want to work for Indian companies coming to the U.S."

 VALUES AND ETHOS

At Chugh, LLP they are motivated, committed and enthusiastic about continuously striving to add value to their clients' business and needs.

For over 25 years, their underlying principle has been to give the best to each client and provide value in being able, available, affordable and affable.

They endeavour to provide the clients with resources and resolve issues that have an impact on their ventures.

Be it a small business in an emerging industry or a multinational corporation, they partner effectively with efficiency. Some firms blindly give every client the same systematic advice.

At Chugh, it is different; they understand the intricacies of every client business and tailor services to meet the specific needs. They partner with the clients in their business enterprise and walk the journey with them.

Navneet further adds, "Our team of dedicated attorneys have an intricate understanding of the complexities of international commerce and we can comprehensively advise our clients on every aspect of their business.

We strive to provide effective and efficient services for every client, whether the client is a small business or a multinational Fortune 500 corporation. Many of our clients have started with us as businesses in emerging industries and stay with us as after growing into market leaders."

CLIENT STRATEGIES AND ENVIRONMENT

Chugh LLP holds its major clients are in the technology space. More than 50 percent of the top 100 Indian companies doing business in the U.S. like Wipro, Mphasis, IBM Daksh, InfoTech Enterprises, Satyam, HCL, Tavant Technologies, and Honeywell Technology Solutions, to name a few of their clients.

Big jobs can bring big troubles. So, Chugh has an expert team of litigation solvers who recognize the client's problems. They recognize that defending or prosecuting a lawsuit can be disruptive and expensive to a client's business.

Thus, often their litigators are called upon to provide advice and counsel before claims are filed.

They work closely with the clients to develop a litigation strategy that is directed to achieve the best result with the most cost-effective legal strategy. It is not just about work at this Firm. It is about three special things – Fun, learning and giving back.

Looking back, Chugh asserts, "I sensed the huge scope of corporate work like setting up new companies, estate planning and doing wills amongst others. That is where I wanted to be.

We have lots of clients all over the world and are affiliated firms in India for three reasons- We want to be a truly global law firm, we want to work for U.S. multinationals in India, and we want to work for Indian companies coming to the U.S." Navneet who works with grit and determination to fulfil his goals says.

Navneet has developed a business model that has paid off. His way of practice and method of working with clients as partners has enabled the Chugh Firm to elevate its clients as market leaders.

Their bridge extends from the offices on the west coast and east coast of the U.S. and to India. This bridge has enabled them to seamlessly integrate resources, people and expertise in providing the best of services to their valued clients.

JOURNEY AS A LAWYER

Navneet recollects, "I started my career as a CPA. Then I sensed the huge scope of corporate work like setting up new companies, estate planning and doing wills amongst others.

And to do the same I needed to become an attorney. I applied around for a law course towards the end of 1987 and wrote an essay on "Role of an attorney in today's society' which helped me with the President's Scholarship award.

The award for the essay was a waiver of the $50,000 for tuition. It was a three-year full-time or a four-year part-time course."

Choosing the latter he continued the accountancy practice and in 1992 became an Attorney-at-Law. Initially, Chugh LLP was started with five people and gradually it moved to 10. Today, they are a family of 300, with 125 attorneys and CPAs.

Law is a second-choice profession among Indian parents, the first choice being the medical profession. But the experts at the firm have followed what is called the Jewish model; it is widely known that the Jewish people excel in law and medicine.

THE TEAM AND CORPORATE SCENARIO

The Chugh Firm today has a huge team that includes experienced attorneys and CPAs. Each of their divisions includes immigration services, corporate law, employment law, transactional work, computer law, tax law, litigation and mergers, and acquisitions is a strong division in its own right.

However, the firm's immigration services are the most popular among Indians in the US. And to substantiate it with numbers, their immigration division processes over 6 percent of the total U.S. H-1B quota of 65,000.

The immigration team at Chugh is the largest practice team to have shifted gears. The team offers phenomenal quality and time-efficiency, even while handling high volume immigration cases on a day-to-day basis.

Chugh plugs in, "With the immigration levels in the US at an all-time high, post 9/11, there have been instances of non-immigrants being unfairly treated by the law."

Chugh's team of immigration legal professionals, with a wide experience in U.S. business immigration, specializes in non-immigrant visas as well as permanent residence cases. But between all this hustle, it doesn't mean that the firm only encourages work and no play.

The Firm misses no opportunity to host a celebration. Winning a case, meeting Firm goals, end of tax season, all are celebrated creatively.

When the retail economy and people's moods were really low in the months following 9/11, Chugh came up with the idea of giving out a middle of the year shopping bonus to everyone.

The whole Firm went to the mall in the middle of the day and spent the afternoon shopping. Among the Firm's top priority is the professional development of its employees and continuing education.

The emphasis on taking classes and courses and enrolling all staff for their next college degrees is top on the agenda as well.

FEATHERS IN THE CAP

Chugh firm has been in business for over 30 years, they have founded various organizations that keep inspiring and making a difference in people's life.

But while they strive to achieve maximum accuracy and excellence, they have a few feathers in their cap like Annual Bar Leader Award – Navneet S. Chugh, Trailblazer Award – Navneet S. Chugh, Best Immigration Law Firms, Indian Americans Making An Impact in America – Navneet S. Chugh, Legal Services Recognition, Cerritos Business Spotlight, Top 20 Court Awards, Top 25 Legal Consultants of the Year – Navneet S. Chugh and more.

PRO BONO AT CHUGH, LLP

At Chugh, LLP they are passionate about community service. Within their world-class law practice and beyond, their professionals are committed to assisting the individuals and groups that need it the most.

They dedicatedly work to provide fair treatment and protection to the clients and extend this ethic into their pro bono work.

Within the community, the Chugh team strives to educate those traditionally excluded from legal channels, and arm them with accurate information to face their difficulties head-on.

Navneet adds, "Keeping in mind the Corporate Social Responsibility and the aspect of giving back to society, one percent of the Firm's revenue is allocated to charitable and social causes."

SCENARIO IN INDIA

With many global companies abounding in India, it's but natural for the Indian companies to adopt international human resource practices, a new concept in corporate India.

Employee stock options are being doled out to retain the employees. Indian corporate has evinced the need of formulating comprehensive HR policy and procedure manuals.

"With two affiliate offices in the southern Indian cities of Bangalore and Chennai- the hotbed of Indian IT revolution, the Firm is well versed in advising on matters like pension, welfare benefit plans and employment discrimination laws.

We also advise clients on major industrial disputes including employer-employee problems, re-organization, and changes in the workforce, terms, and condition of employment" avows Navneet.

Big jobs can bring big troubles. So, Chugh has an expert team of litigation solvers who recognize the client's problems. They recognize that defending or prosecuting a lawsuit can be disruptive and expensive to a client's business.

Thus, often their litigators are called upon to provide advice and counsel before claims are filed. They work closely with the clients to develop a litigation strategy that is directed to achieve the best result with the most cost-effective legal strategy.

With so many services and a phenomenon of having operations where your customers are, the company was India-bound in 2004 under an alliance with Universal Legal- in Bangalore.

Universal Legal helps U.S. based companies in India or those launching Indian operations, with laws of the land and allied services to Indian companies that want to go to the U.S.

With great companies, comes great consolidation, so one knows how to play it out. The Firm, by experience, has acquired expertise in M&A transactions by successfully leveraging its cross-border specialization and experience to develop an international M&A practice.

The 1985 era CPA Firm is going strong with hundreds of employees all over the world. Chugh LLP has a full range of tax services that goes well with its legal services.

The Firm is qualified to deal in all federal, state, sales, taxation jobs as they update themselves on all developments in the international arena and areas regarding characterization of income, interpretation of permanent establishment in the ever-changing technological stratosphere, and apply their expertise to a wide range of areas including advance rulings and advice in the field of e-commerce.