Faraz Alam Sagar: The Move
Faraz Alam Sagar has joined CMS INDUSLAW as Equity Partner and Head of Dispute Resolution & White-Collar Crimes, moving from Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) where he served as Co-Head and Partner of the White Collar & Investigations practice — effective 25 April 2026, based out of Mumbai.
The firm’s founding partners were unambiguous about the strategic weight of the appointment. Avimukt Dar and Suneeth Katarki said in a joint statement: “Faraz brings rare experience at the intersection of disputes, investigations, sanctions and regulatory risk.” Sagar, for his part, signalled an expansionist agenda at his new home: he said he looks forward to “expanding the Firm’s international practice across the region and bringing world-class expertise to clients navigating complex cross-border matters.”
Faraz Alam Sagar’s Professional Background
Sagar is one of the more internationally textured disputes lawyers in the Indian market. Before returning to India and joining CAM, he built his cross-border credentials at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer — across the Dubai, Bahrain, and London offices — and at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Frankfurt, where he advised on a range of cross-border financial crimes matters. That early career arc, spanning the Gulf, Europe, and London, is precisely what makes him a differentiated hire for a firm whose core pitch is now India-plus-global.
At CAM, where he spent over eight years, Sagar was a co-head of the White Collar & Investigations practice and a partner in the Disputes, Regulatory, Advocacy and Policy practice in Mumbai. His work spanned cross-border litigation, corporate and forensic investigations, regulatory enforcement, international sanctions advisory, and trade remedies. He has advised governments, multinational corporations, and high-net-worth individuals across contentious and non-contentious mandates. His Chambers and Partners profile notes that he is “well placed to take on cross-border white-collar crime mandates” and holds additional skill in handling internal investigations. Legal 500 has also tracked his practice, noting his focus on cross-border litigation, corporate and forensic investigations, and international sanctions alongside CAM’s managing partner.
- Education: B.A., LL.B., Symbiosis Law School, Pune (2006); Master of Business Laws, National Law School of India University; LLM in Finance Laws, Goethe University Frankfurt
- Bar membership: Permanent Member, Bombay Bar Association
- Experience: Over two decades navigating complex, multi-jurisdictional matters across disputes, white-collar crime, sanctions, and investigations
- Pre-CAM international tenure: Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Dubai, Bahrain, London) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (Frankfurt)
- Rankings: Recognised by Chambers and Partners (Asia-Pacific) and Legal 500 for white-collar crime and cross-border disputes
About CMS INDUSLAW and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
CMS INDUSLAW is the product of one of Indian legal market’s most consequential tie-ups in recent memory. Formerly known as IndusLaw — established in 2000 and ranked the seventh-largest law firm in India — the firm became a member of CMS, the international organisation of independent law firms, in mid-2025, completing its onboarding by the end of that year. The combined entity gives CMS INDUSLAW access to over 7,000 lawyers across 84+ offices in 49 countries, while the Indian firm’s 400+ lawyers and 60 partners provide the domestic depth. The firm has been on an active disputes-focused hiring spree in Mumbai: as recently as August 2025, it brought in senior partner Abeezar Faizullabhoy and two partners from Argus Partners to bolster its dispute resolution bench. Sagar’s appointment as practice head now crowns that build-out with dedicated white-collar and international sanctions leadership.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas needs little introduction. India’s largest law firm by headcount and revenue, CAM has consistently ranked among the country’s top-tier practices across every major discipline. Its disputes and white-collar practice is among the most recognised in the country, and losing Sagar — one of its named co-heads and a Legal 500-ranked practitioner — to a rival building for international scale is a meaningful talent event. CMS INDUSLAW has now joined AZB & Partners, which onboarded five CAM partners, and Anagram Partners, which hired two, in a broader pattern of senior-level departures from CAM over recent months.
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Practice Implications for CMS INDUSLAW
Sagar’s hire is not merely additive — it is architectural. CMS INDUSLAW’s pitch to multinational clients has always depended on its ability to offer seamlessly coordinated cross-border advice. The disputes and investigations side of that offer has, until now, lacked a dedicated senior practitioner with both Indian regulatory depth and hard international experience. Sagar fills that gap precisely. At CMS INDUSLAW, he will lead the firm’s practice in cross-border litigation, regulatory investigations, white-collar crime, corporate and forensic investigations, and international sanctions and sanctions advisory — a mandate that maps almost perfectly onto the kinds of mandates that flow from the firm’s CMS network referrals.
The timing also aligns with a structural surge in demand. Indian companies are facing heightened scrutiny under US customs and export control regulations, FCPA enforcement, and sanctions regimes — all areas where Sagar has a documented and published track record. His recent writing at CAM covered US tariff penalties on Indian oil trade, FCPA and False Claims Act exposure for Indian multinationals, and FCRA compliance — precisely the regulatory headwinds that CMS INDUSLAW’s global client base is navigating.
- Sanctions and cross-border regulatory work: Sagar brings rare India-plus-international sanctions advisory capability at a moment when Indian companies face escalating US, EU, and UK sanctions exposure — a practice gap CMS INDUSLAW now closes at the equity partner level.
- International arbitration and litigation: The founding partners specifically called out complex international arbitration and litigation as areas his addition will strengthen, deepening a practice line that is critical to the firm’s CMS network referral pipeline.
- White-collar and forensic investigations: His forensic and corporate investigations expertise — covering anti-bribery, PMLA, extradition, and serious fraud — positions CMS INDUSLAW to compete for mandates that have historically gone to Magic Circle and Big Law firms with India desks.
The Bigger Picture: Indian Legal Talent Market 2026
The lateral market in Indian law has shifted gear. What was once a slow-moving, tenure-bound system is now characterised by equity-level movement between firms with genuine strategic intent — and the white-collar and disputes segment is at the centre of it. Regulatory complexity has compounded: US secondary sanctions, FCPA enforcement targeting Indian entities, RBI and SEBI’s expanding investigation powers, and the liberalisation of India’s own legal market have all turbocharged demand for practitioners who can work across both domestic criminal law and international enforcement frameworks. Firms that can field such lawyers are winning mandates that did not exist five years ago.
Sagar’s move also reflects a broader pattern visible across India’s top-tier firms in 2025–2026: senior disputes and white-collar practitioners are being recruited at the equity level — not merely as laterals, but as practice architects. Comparable momentum is visible in adjacent fields, with forensic investigation boutiques, international arbitration practices, and PMLA-specialist teams all seeing elevated partner-level activity. For CMS INDUSLAW, landing a practitioner of Sagar’s pedigree — with two decades of experience, Freshfields and PwC pedigree, and a Chambers-ranked practice — is a statement of arrival in a segment where the firm had ambition but limited brand recognition.
What This Means for the Indian Legal Market
Faraz Alam Sagar’s arrival at CMS INDUSLAW as practice head signals that the firm is no longer content to treat disputes as a secondary offering — it is actively building a premium, internationally competitive bench in a practice area that is growing faster than almost any other in India. Watch for further hires around the white-collar and sanctions core, and for CMS INDUSLAW to begin appearing on mandates that have historically been ring-fenced by CAM, AZB, and India desks of global firms. The race to own India’s cross-border disputes and regulatory enforcement market is now fully joined.
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Disclaimer: This report is based on verified sources available in the public domain. Readers should independently verify before reliance. The Courtroom does not warrant the absolute accuracy of personnel data which may change without notice.
