According to four sources close to Duas, she has internally announced that she would stay at the firm.

Legally India could not confirm further details at the time of going to press.

SAM managing partner Pallavi Shroff had confirmed Patodia’s joining on 5 June, after first publication of the news of her leaving Dua with her junior partners Priyanka Sharma Goswami and Anusuya Sadhu Sinha, and manager Saloni Tuteja and senior associate Amrita Sharma.

Patodia has been at Dua for 29 years and is one of the most senior partners at the firm and its litigation practice. She did not respond to messages seeking comment since last week.

Pallavi Shroff denied last week that Patodia would not join, but has not responded to an email and call seeking comment yesterday.

Dua managing partner Ranji Dua declined to comment when contacted last week and has since not responded to further emails and calls seeking comment.

On 9 June, responding to Legally India’s request on 5 June about Patodia leaving, Dua wrote in an email:

Shiraz spoke to me about her joining Shardul on Friday [5 June] afternoon.  As you know there are contractual obligations of the partners under the Partnership Deed and she would be obliged to meet her commitments therein including a Notice period. 

When asked on 5 June about how Patodia’s leaving would affect Dua’s litigation practice, he wrote:

As regards litigation practice of Duas we would like to apprise you that the firm has around twenty litigation partners in its various offices of whom at least ten are in the Delhi/ Gurgaon practice […].  Therefore the execution of ongoing work is not an issue relating to availability of experienced professionals but is more a matter of allocation. 

Our firm prides itself in having a robust and experienced set of partners since the past close to three decades and has had the benefit of receiving back some of the partners who had left us for experience in other firms including the erstwhile Amarchands.

Dua had hired Shardul Amarchand principal associate Kunal Mehra as a partner, first reported shortly after Patodia’s move.