The (UK) Lawyer magazine / website published news yesterday about a development in the Indian legal market that may be that first small step to democratize hiring at Indian law firms…
The Lawyer writes:
Top Indian firm Amarchand & Mangladas & Suresh A Shroff & Co has taken the highly unusual step of making two lateral hires – just a few months after it shook up its lockstep and internal governance.
Amarchand has recruited Tushar Mavani, a corporate partner from Mulla & Mulla & Blunt & Caroe and Ashish Jejurkar, head of Luthra & Luthra’s Mumbai corporate practice.
Amarchand managing partner Cyril Shroff told The Lawyer: “These two people have the right temperament and drive to be part of our vision.”
“There’s impetus and a desire to grow our firm, both in terms of influence and numbers.”
The dual hire will take the number of partners to 42 across its five offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
The firm has also announced the promotion of Bangalore senior associate Ganesh Prasad, who will relocate to Mumbai and join the partnership next year.
The move comes in the wake of a far-reaching restructure of the firm’s partnership and corporate governance, revealed by The Lawyer earlier this year (23 February).
Having operated an eat-what-you-kill system for two decades, Amarchand became one of the first firms in India to implement a lockstep.
Shroff said: “Lockstep has a more equitable feel about it. We wanted clarity in terms of compensation and that is very important in creating a long-term institution.”
http://www.thelawyer.com/1000696.article
A couple of interesting comments including this one
Amarchand never had a eat what you kill model, excpet maybe between the two borthers in Delhi and Mumbai.
From what i understand from the grapevine the present model is not a lockstep in a way that the UK market understands.
Anyhow it is good move on part of AMSS and they must be congratulated for ramping their capacity while their competition is busy running around in London and New York trying to cobble together a deal with western firms in the hope that the Indian legal market will open up to allow joint ventures and the owners will cash out
