Rajiv Parikh, a partner with Genova Burns. Courtesy photo.

If Rajiv "Raj" Parikh, a partner at Genova Burns, had jet lag on Tuesday after a 14-hour flight returning to New Jersey from India, he didn't convey it.

Parikh left Mumbai and landed at Newark Liberty International Airport at 5:17 a.m. Eastern time after a trip to India as part of a delegation of the nonprofit group Choose New Jersey that accompanied Gov. Phil Murphy on a weeklong, six-city trade mission. Parikh was among representatives of the "professional services" sector of the delegation.

"Face-to-face and interpersonal relationships are really important there," Parikh said in a phone interview on Tuesday. He was at his desk in the firm's Newark office by 9 a.m. after stopping home to see his wife and kids. "It's why the governor went to India. Culturally, it's the way you do business.

"Our team understands that, and we've had a decent Indian American client base for the last five to 10 years," Parikh said of his firm. "Being able to appreciate that about the culture and participate in those cultural norms is what helps set us apart."

In fact, Genova Burns is hoping to take advantage of the ties it has built with the state's Indian community.

The firm on Sept. 17 formally launched an "India Practice Group" led by Parikh. The new group is intended to provide the regulatory, transactional (including business formation), immigration, and labor and employment law counsel associated with opening U.S. offices in New Jersey and the Northeast for India-based companies.

"These are things we have been doing for years," Parikh explained. "We just solidified them to create a team of people to address the largest issues, including corporate formations, mergers and acquisitions, business transactions in terms of forming a business and dealing with regulations with India. The export control process of India intersects with business formation here in the U.S. We will be navigating the process of foreign investment in the U.S."

Parikh, who turned 40 earlier this month, said the India Practice Group is less litigation-heavy, and focused more on counseling and transactional aspects of businesses, such as trademarking.

"These are well-established companies but not yet registered or filed in the U.S.," he said. "We provide the bridge that they need."

India is New Jersey's fourth-largest trading partner, with petro chemicals, textile manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, IT and technology software, and service businesses, among the largest sectors. And there are an estimated 420,000 Indians in the state, according to recent U.S. Census data. Among the states, New Jersey has one of the largest concentrations of Indians per square mile, according to Choose New Jersey, which sponsored Murphy's trip to India, and which focuses on business development.

There are large pockets of Indian Americans in Central Jersey—Middlesex, Mercer and Somerset counties—and also in the northern part of the state—in Hudson, Bergen and Morris counties. Indian Americans represent the largest group of foreign-born residents in New Jersey, according to the governor's office.

"This is why it made sense for a law firm to have an Indian practice," Parikh said. "Indians, in general, view New Jersey as a great place to do business or expand their global business, and we wanted to be a part of that. There is a large group of them that want to establish their businesses in New Jersey. We have market advantage and tell them what challenges lie ahead."

Parikh said the heavy concentration of Indian Americans here was why Murphy became the first New Jersey governor to take a trade mission to India.

In seven days, the delegation squeezed in six cities: New Delhi, the capital of India; Agra, in the state of Uttar Pradesh (home of the famed Taj Mahal); Hyderabad in Telangana (a hotbed for the pharma industry); Mumbai in Maharashtra; Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, both in the state of Gujarat (which more than 50% of the Indian population lists as their area of origin before moving to New Jersey).

"It was really an intense trip," said Parikh, who previously served as senior counsel to Murphy as part of his 2018 transition team.

Among the governor's announcements on the India trip, which kicked off on Sept. 16 and ended on Sept. 22, were:

• Three India-based technology companies with operations in New Jersey would expand their existing presence here, adding roughly 1,250 jobs;
• A partnership with the National Research Development Corp. and Rowan University to collaborate on research and development and promotion of inventions;
• A collaboration between Choose New Jersey, the New Jersey Film Commission, and the Active Telugu Film Producers Guild to promote Indian film production in New Jersey and Hyderabad; and
• The opening of the New Jersey India Center in Gurugram, India, "to increase economic opportunities and build relationships between New Jersey and India," Murphy said in a release on Sept. 16. "With this new office, we will be able to bring our state's message of economic prosperity directly to India."

Parikh ticked off reasons why India has emerged as New Jersey's fourth-largest trading partner. He said the state's location played a part—being next to New York, the largest capital market in the world, and Philadelphia, the sixth-largest market. The state's gross domestic product was in the Top 50 worldwide, he said, adding that there is a large talented and educated labor pool to draw from in the state, which offers a cultural base.

"Top execs in India send their senior person here and transplant them, and they have a home away from home, with movie theaters and grocery stores like in India, as well as places to pray or watch cricket," Parikh said. "New Jersey has all that to offer. Anywhere in the northeast corner of the state to the southwestern part of the state, they are within 30-45 minutes of Indian life. That in itself really makes New Jersey a huge target for Indian businesses to establish their U.S.-based operations."

Cultural components, as well as the language barrier, are important, Parikh said. Indian Americans in New Jersey speak primarily Punjabi and Hindi only. Parikh said Genova Burns' Indian Practice Group will have attorneys that speak both.

Parikh himself is heavily vested in his community. He serves as general counsel for the Share & Care Foundation and the Hindu American Seva Communities, and was previously the vice president for Affiliate Relations for the South Asian Bar Association of North America.

"Genova Burns embraces opportunities for our attorneys to get more deeply involved in their community, be it at the local, regional, state or federal level," said Angelo Genova, managing partner and chairman of Genova Burns, in a statement about Parikh before his leaving for the India trip.

Parikh is a partner at Genova Burns, chairman of the construction law and litigation and the election law and litigation practices, and co-chairman of the crisis management practice and hotels and restaurants industry group.

He describes the Indian Practice Group as a "focus group," as opposed to highly specialized groups such as the firm's cannabis practice group, aerospace group, or gaming practice group.

"Focus groups are made up of people who do a lot of things and offer legal representation in a lot of areas," Parikh said. "The focus group brings all of them together under one umbrella so they have an understanding of the nuance and clients that are used to operating in a different way than we are used to in the U.S."

Parikh said the firm's fashion law group was another example of a focus group.

"At the end of the day, what we recognize is that the law firm business has to evolve and should no longer try to stick to traditional methods with rigid practice groups and rigid practice leaders with poor communication," he said. "We have always functioned in collaborative teams, and the services we provide are collaborative in nature.

"Offering an India Practice Group is another way to do that, and where the business community is heading," added Parikh.