Our Team
We bring deep experience in venture capital, private equity, and M&A with a partner-led, senior-focused approach.
Our team brings over four decades of collective professional experience across venture capital, private equity, and M&A. We offer a partner-led approach to every mandate, ensuring we deliver focused, senior-level attention from start to finish.
Akshay Jeet Bhat
Partner
With over 20 years of professional experience, Akshay has represented clients across the full spectrum of investment, acquisition, and exit transactions. He has advised numerous investment funds on their Indian strategies, from seed-stage deals to investments in listed companies, giving him a deep and holistic understanding of the legal and commercial dynamics that drive the lifecycle of a business.
Prior to co-founding First Principles Law, Akshay was a partner in the corporate practice of one of India’s oldest and largest full-service law firms.
Prasad Subramanyan
Partner
In over a decade of dedicated transactional practice, Prasad has operated in every part of the venture capital, private equity, and M&A vertical. His experience is distinguished by his time as both a founder side counsel as well as the head of legal at a leading Indian venture capital investor, which gives him an invaluable investor-side perspective on deal-making and structuring. This unique vantage point allows him to provide intensely practical and commercially-focused advice.
Prasad has led deal teams and partnered closely with founders and funds on a wide range of advisory and transactional mandates across sectors. He has been recognized as a ‘Top Individual Lawyer’ by Forbes Legal Powerlist 2020 and as an ‘Up and Coming’ lawyer in Venture Capital by Chambers Asia Pacific 2021.
Representative Experience Highlights
(includes experience prior to founding First Principles Law)
The partners have represented the following illustrative set of clients across various transactions.
Venture Capital and Private Equity funds such as Accel India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Elevation Capital, Fireside Ventures, Lightspeed India, Peak XV (fka Sequoia Capital India), RPSG Capital Ventures, Softbank Vision Fund, Tiger Global and Z47 (fka Matrix Partners India).
Companies / Corporates such as Akshaykalpa, Amazon, Bigbasket, Bombay Shaving Company, Darwinbox, Reckitt Benckiser, Tata Electronics and Ver Se (Dailyhunt).
Team Profile
Aarathi Krishna
Aarathi is a corporate lawyer with experience in general corporate advisory, commercial contracts, and a range of corporate transactions. She is a graduate of the Gujarat National Law University.
Prior to joining First Principles Law, she has worked at AZB & Partners, River Law (fka Rajaram Legal) and a leading fin-tech player in their in-house team. She is particularly interested in working closely with founders and supporting clients on day-to-day legal and operational matters.
Gopika Nambiar
Gopika is a corporate lawyer with experience in advising on venture capital, private equity and M&A transactions across diverse sectors. Gopika holds a law degree from the University of Edinburgh.
Prior to joining First Principles Law, she was part of the general corporate team at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. Her expertise includes deal management, drafting transaction documents, managing legal due diligence and advising on regulatory compliance.
Ishaan Bhatnagar
Ishaan is a corporate lawyer with experience in mergers and acquisitions, private equity, venture capital, and corporate advisory with a strong foundation in legal diligence, transaction structuring, and contract negotiation.
Prior to joining First Principles Law, Ishaan has worked at Mehta & Padamsey and Quillon Partners. He holds a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from Jindal Global Law School and has also completed specialized courses in commercial contracts and valuation methodologies.
Ishaan has experience in acting for the buy side and sell side on deals across sectors including pharmaceuticals and healthcare, insurance, technology and telecommunications as well as consumer goods.
Joanna Joshua
Joanna Pranika Joshua is a corporate lawyer with experience in a broad spectrum of corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, and general corporate advisory. Joanna completed her law from Symbiosis Law School, Pune.
Prior to joining First Principles Law, Joanna worked at AZB & Partners and the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
Joanna is a keen legal researcher and has published extensively in reputed national and international journals. While her primary area of practice is corporate law, she also maintains a strong academic interest in international law, which informs her analytical approach to complex legal issues.
Sravanti Pemmaraju
Sravanti holds a law degree from Christ University, Bangalore, and a master’s degree from Queen Mary University of London.
Prior to joining First Principles Law, she was part of an in-house legal team in London.
Her work focuses on advising clients on corporate and commercial transactions across various sectors. She is passionate about working with stakeholders to create long-term value and drive sustainable growth in the startup ecosystem.
Varshini Ramesh
Varshini Ramesh is a transactions lawyer specializing in venture capital, private equity, and M&A, with experience across 100+ transactions from pre-seed to late-stage funding rounds. She advises founders, investors, and corporates on investment structuring, exits, PE and strategic acquisitions, business transfers, and pre-IPO placements across sectors including technology, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and consumer goods. Varshini has also led training initiatives and PE market deal terms analysis for leading law firms in India.
Varshini graduated from Christ University, Bangalore. Prior to joining First Principles Law, she advised clients at Luthra and Luthra Law Offices India and Burgeon Law.