Shahana Chatterji

Shahana Chatterji is a Partner with the Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs team at the Firm. Prior to Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, she has worked with S&R Associates, New Delhi and the U.S. Congress, Washington D.C.

Shahana has been deeply involved with policy and regulatory issues both in India and in the United States. She has worked with a Representative at the U.S. Congress, Washington D.C., engaging in expansive legislative and policy matters ranging from healthcare to financial reforms. Before working with the U.S. Congress, she worked extensively on capital markets and corporate finance transactions and advised clients on foreign investment and financial regulatory issues here in India.

She currently works on a range of regulatory matters with a specialization in data and emerging technology, and technology aspects of the highly regulated sectors in India (such as healthcare and financial services). With an unparalleled understanding of law and policy making processes, she provides cutting edge solutions involving law making and legal and regulatory assistance on all data governance and emerging technology issues. She has also been at the forefront of significant developments in the highly regulated sectors in India and she uses this expertise to inform her advice on data governance issues as they interplay with these sectors.

As part of her specialization, Shahana has worked closely with the world’s largest technology, internet and data intensive companies and has led matters relating to data privacy, data processing and cross border data transfers, use of regulated data such as Aadhaar data, online advertising, online speech and content regulation, intermediary liability, cybersecurity, public procurement of technology, development and deployment of enterprise solutions and digital products, e-commerce and telecom regulations.

She also provides strategic advice on emerging and disruptive technologies and solutions including AI solutions in the healthcare sector, BFSI sector, IoT solutions etc.

She has been spending her time leading critical matters for her clients and providing thought leadership for the industry on the recent Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023, which resulted from the Justice Srikrishna Expert Committee and the nation-wide consultations it held. Shahana has not only been instrumental in the formulation of the industry points of view to the recent legislation, she has also presented industry viewpoints on the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 and has deposed before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) set up to analyse and revise the proposed draft of the data protection bill in India.

Finally, she has led the data protection aspects of some of the largest transactions in the field of technology in recent times, including Meta’s (erstwhile Facebook) biggest FDI investment of US$ 5.7 billion in Reliance Jio, which was recognised among the “star deals” in the India Business Law Journal Deals of the Year 2020. Shahana is among one of the key active partners in the firm in terms of media interactions and regularly contribute articles on policy and regulatory affairs in various leading journals and newspapers.