Reena Asthana Khair

Reena Asthana Khair is a Senior Partner at Kochhar & Co. in the New Delhi office, specialising in Tax Law. She heads the Firm's International Trade & Indirect Taxation Practice and has more than 25 years of experience representing clients before the Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal, various High Courts and the Supreme Court of India, with over 300 reported cases argued by her.

Reena has represented domestic and foreign industries in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases before the Directorate General of Trade Remedies and higher forums, successfully arguing the highest number of such cases before the Tribunal. Her practice encompasses customs valuation, classification under the Harmonized System Nomenclature, export promotion schemes, SEZs, GST transition issues, and export refunds. She has advised major conglomerates and Fortune Global 500 companies in the oil & gas, specialty materials, chemicals, steel and manufacturing sectors on tax optimisation and dispute resolution, and successfully represented a client before the Supreme Court in a landmark case clarifying that certain investigating officers are not "proper officers" under the Customs Act.

Reena holds an LL.B. from the University of Delhi (1995), an M.A. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (1992), and a B.A. (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University (1990). She is a member of the Bar Council of Delhi.

She is recognised as an Elite Leading Lawyer for International Trade & WTO and a Recommended Lawyer for Tax by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2022), a Litigation Star for Taxation by Benchmark Litigation (2022), and has been featured in the Forbes India Legal Powerlist for Anti-Dumping and Taxation expertise.