Breaking exclusive: ALMT Legal has ended its best friendship with Clyde & Co as it is parting ways with five partners across Mumbai, London and Delhi who will create new start-up firm Clasis Law with a partner joining from the international firm.
ALMT partner Aliff Fazelbhoy said in a statement: “Given the views of the majority of the ALMT partners, we felt it best to help facilitate this separation so both groups can focus on their different objectives.
“Whilst we are sad to lose some of our friends as partners we believe that this separation is in the best interest of all. We wish Clasis Law every success.”
ALMT will remain with 12 of its partners: Fazelbhoy, Ananjan Mitter, Sameer Tapia, SR Arun, Prashant Popat, Hitesh Jain, Statira Ranina, Dhanya Menon, Ryna Karani, Arvind Kamath, Rakesh Prabhu and Gautam Bhatikar.
Clyde & Co Dubai partner Abhimanyu Jalan will be joining Clasis Law as a partner, alongside Mumbai India Law Services lateral hire and partner Ishtiaq Ali, Mumbai partner Renu Parekh and of counsel Damodar Rao, with September 2010 Luthra & Luthra lateral hire Vineet Aneja in Delhi, and London partners Sakate Khaitan and Shalini Agarwal.
Clasis will officially remain the Indian best-friend relationship firm of Clyde & Co, which was announced in June 2009.
At the time ALMT and Clyde stated in a joint press release: “Local regulations in India do not currently permit a merger with an international firm but the two firms will look to merge once it becomes legally permissible.”
Clasis partner Khaitan said in a statement: “We at Clasis Law look forward to the exciting new challenge of building a genuinely international Indian law firm which can service our clients in a wide range of markets.”
The new firm will be set up with effect from 1 April 2011.
It is understood that ALMT may continue maintaining a presence in Delhi and London in future.
ALMT partners declined to comment further.
In January of this year AZB & Partners ended its best friendship with UK magic circle firm Clifford Chance after two years.
Click here to read about the reasons behind the split and how ALMT will rebuild.
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Anyway, is clasis part of clyde now or what is the arrangement between them?
unless they are not having clients and encroaching on share of other partners!!!
but reason for split of quite old partners is not clear, though the new lateral hires seems to enjoy firm hopping!!!
never heard of him before
never heard of him before[/quote
All i can say is, Wait and Watch!
almt will always be under control of clyde and no will be questioning its relation with clyde. (coz anyways they will merge upon change in govt. policy towards foreign law firms)
smart move both clyde and almt.
both almt and clyde
its basically into insurance and transport
ALMT is left with only 1 associate in Delhi, while Vineet Aneja has joined with Clasis.
keep dreaming. foreign law firms will come to pakistan and bangladesh before they come to india.
Verify your facts before commenting :D
With India being one of the fastest growing economies, I disagree to why foreign law firms are not allowed to set up in the country. Many foreign corporations and multi-national companies are increasingly entering into Indian markets in various sectors due to liberalization and globalization.I would say with India being world’s largest democracy, it is high time to improve its legal scenario and allowance of foreign law firms will definitely work to enhance its economy.
In other countries like UK whose legal market is opened, the results have been very fascinating. Each country has a stronger and a competitive legal profession than before, bringing specialization in International corporate law. The expertise has improved al lot and therefore, also gave domestic lawyers the access to such expertise of the international law firms. High level of foreign direct investment in the host country is seen and therefore, legal services are a key component of such successful economies.
The fact remains that India is in the process of globalizing its economy and in the process; the legal market opening up to competition from the international legal market is rather inevitable. It is perhaps more sensible to accept that the entry of foreign firms in India is only a matter of time. This should be seen as an opportunity for the law firms of competition and for the graduates, as a wider range of employment options.
Anyway, best friends relationship is still having its hold, which will gradually prove the point in few years. I wish good luck to Clasis Law.
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