best friends
Following the break-up between Clyde & Co and Clasis Law, which we had first reported on 22 March, UK-international firm Clydes has now tied up with former Clasis partner Sumeet Lall’s new firm CSL Chambers, according to sources.
Vaish Associates has joined international tax law firm network Andersen Global which has collaborations with legally independent law firms in 103 locations worldwide, it announced on its website yesterday.
The nearly 7-year-old best friendship between Clyde & Co and Clasis Law is on the rocks, and due to not continue after 31 March of this year, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the development.
Clasis Law co-founding partner Sakate Khaitan and three Clasis senior associates have started Khaitan Legal Associates, a law firm with offices in Mumbai and London.
Indian Law Partners (ILP) and Ashurst acted for Japanese Toshiba in its investment in Delhi-based clean water solutions provider company UEM India.
Naik Naik & Co and London-international firm Lawrence Graham (formerly known as LG) have entered into a preferred referral relationship.
Talwar Thakore & Associates partner will re-join Links.
Clasis Law aviation partner Sidhanth Rajagopal, who joined the firm in Delhi from best friend relationship firm Clyde & Co London where he was a senior associate, has returned to Clydes as an equity partner after less than two years in India.
Clasis partner Vineet Aneja told legal website Bar & Bench that given the transnational nature of Rajagopal’s client base, it was logical for him to return to a global law firm.
Shalini Agarwal, one of the co-founders of Clasis when it broke away from ALMT Legal, which she had also founded, left Clasis at the end of March to set up her own independent practice headquartered in London. The departures leave Clasis with seven partners across Delhi, Mumbai and London.
Exclusive: Trilegal, which is claimed to have been growing at 25 per cent per year, has converted into nearly a full equity partnership, created an elected management committee and a democratic model where the founding partners could theoretically be ousted by an equity partnership vote.
Legally India was candidly walked through the changes and examines the back story to the end of its best friendship with Allen & Overy (A&O), the grief lawyers can cause, one-way referrals and the inevitability of associate attrition when a firm has to run fast without godfathers.
Breaking: Law firms Allen & Overy and Trilegal have ended their five-year best friend relationship, according to a press release from both firms.
Singh & Associates (S&A) has seconded a partner and a principal associate to Beijing full-time, to strengthen the firm’s China practice with the help of a non-exclusive client referral arrangement with Guangda Law Firm in China.
Exclusive: Ex-Amarchand Mangaldas tax head Aseem Chawla has started a tax, business and corporate advisory law firm called MPC Legal with two co-founding partners, as the “best friend” firm of chartered accountancy (CA) firm Mohinder Puri & Co.
Legally India’s last Mint column in 2011 gives its verdict on some of the past year’s biggest stories related to corporate law firms, with an unashamed slant bias towards UK-Indo relations. Click here to read more.
Mumbai, exhibiting that clichéd resilience much loved by commentators, continued with its business despite taking shocks and wild media rumours that would dent the spirits of many other cities. While the financial capital continues to live, the legal profession faced its own share of shocks: one new Anglo-Indian best friendship, a new law minister and the loss of its solicitor general and probably also the Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman.
The firms would give preference in referring work to each other as “best friends” but would remain non-exclusive in line with Indian restrictions, Pant and Ashurst India head Richard Gubbins told Legally India.
Clyde & Co senior associate Sidanth Rajagopal has left to become a Delhi-based aviation partner at Clasis Law, the UK firm’s new Indian best friend law firm that split from ALMT Legal in April of this year.
Mumbai firm Rajani Associates has entered into a non-exclusive referral agreement with Australian boutique firm Rockwell Bates, which was not a “best friend relationship” the firm stressed.
Exclusive interview: ALMT will re-build its Delhi and London offices after its split from foreign best friend firm Clyde & Co and five partners, vowed ALMT Mumbai partner Aliff Fazelbhoy.
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.
Exclusive: Almost half of a sample of India’s fastest growing companies still relied on domestic law firms to introduce them to foreign law firms, according to a report.