Chitra Narayan

Senior Fellow – India

Chitra Narayan is a lawyer and an accredited mediator with experience mediating commercial, corporate and family (including partition and matrimonial) disputes.

About Chitra Narayan

Chitra Narayan is a lawyer and an accredited mediator with experience mediating commercial, corporate, and family (including partition and matrimonial) disputes.

As a lawyer, Ms. Narayan has over 25 years’ experience in corporate commercial law, both as a transactional attorney and dispute resolver, experience she uses to inform her work in mediation and conciliation. Prior to establishing her independent practice, she was a partner with leading law firms in India.

Ms. Narayan has been a mediator with the Tamil Nadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre, annexed to the Madras High Court, since its inception in 2005. She is a founding Trustee of the Foundation for Comprehensive Dispute Resolution (FCDR), Chennai, an initiative dedicated to mainstreaming mediation and to providing mediation and conciliation services.

Ms. Narayan is also a Professor of the Practice at Sai University in Chennai, and was one of the mediators appointed by the Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee of the Supreme Court of India in 2020 to draft a legislation on mediation for India.

Ms. Narayan is the author of Mediation Policy and Practice (Oakbridge Publishing Ltd., 2021) which evaluates the use of mediation in various dispute verticals, including cross-border mediation under the Singapore Convention. This text examines possibilities for mediation, the policies governing its use in India, and compares policies and judgements of courts in other jurisdictions on various issues.

Litigation, Advisory and Transactions Practice

Prior to establishing her independent practice, Ms. Narayan was a partner with J. Sagar Associates (JSA) and a founding partner with Vichar Partners, a Chennai-based law firm.

In her commercial law practice, Chitra advises her clients regarding corporate and shareholder disputes, commercial disputes, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and investment agreements, apart from general commercial agreements.

Mediation Practice

Ms. Narayan is a certified accredited mediator with the Tamil Nadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre, Madras High Court (TNMCC).

She is a Founding Trustee of the Foundation for Comprehensive Dispute Resolution (FCDR), an organization providing mediation training and mediation services in Chennai.

ADR Achievements and Training

Weinstein JAMS International Fellow (2017)

Mediating Disputes at the Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School (2017)

International Court ADR Intensive Program, University of California, Hastings College of the Law (2017)

Commercial Mediation Training by the Bangalore Mediation Centre in association with the JAMS Institute and FSRI (2013)

Civil and Commercial Mediator Training by the ADR Group, UK (2007)

Certified Accredited Mediator with Tamil Nadu Mediation and Conciliation Centre, Madras High Court (2007)

Basic Mediation Skills Training by the Indian Centre for Mediation and Dispute Resolution (2002)

ADR Teaching and Mentoring

Teaches courses in mediation at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, Maharashtra National Law University, Mumbai, and the Daksha Fellowship, Sai University
Expert Trainer in mediation trainings for college students organized by the Youth Conflict Management and Mediation Initiative in 2021 and 2022
Teacher Speaker at EMW GenNxt Classroom Series on Mediation Education for law students from the first to the third batch (2021-2022)
Mediation awareness and training to judges and lawyers in Kolkata (April 2018)
Speaker at conferences and seminars on mediation, including at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Centre for Advanced Mediators Practice (CAMP), LITCON 2017 – Conference on IP Litigation
Organizer and speaker at FCDR-Madras Management Association Conference on Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Chennai (February 2016)
Negotiation training for lawyers (2015)

Publications and Education

Publications

Author, Mediation Policy and Practice, 2021

Editor, Pollock and Mulla, The Indian Contract and Specific Relief Acts, 16th Edition

Specialist Editor, C.R.Datta, Company Law, 7th Edition

Specialist Editor, A. Ramaiya, Guide to the Companies Act, 18th Edition

Authored articles on company law and mediation in law journals and newspapers

Researcher, Legal Origins: The Impact of Different Legal Systems on the Regulation of the Business Enterprise in the Asia-Pacific Region Project, Monash University: Research on legal history of company law and changes in India (2011)

Columnist, The Hindu Metro Plus on legal issues concerning women and the law (2005-2006)

Educational Qualifications

Graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (1994)
Masters in Law in Development from the University of Warwick, U.K., which she attended as a Chevening Scholar (1995)