A total of six partners each were promoted in Mumbai and Delhi, while one additional partner was made up in Bangalore, which is managed from the Mumbai office.
Nine out of the 13 promotions, or almost 70 per cent, are women.
It is understood that the partnership selection process began in February with the evaluation process, followed by internal discussions amongst partners.
In the last week prospective partners then faced interviews with the managing partner, followed by the family board, with the final approval granted by the managing committee.
Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff commented in a press release that the partner selection process had been “comprehensively revamped” after the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) review last year that resulted in the so-called “Amarchand version 3.0” strategy last October, as first revealed by Legally India.
“All the candidates have been selected after several rigorous rounds of evaluation by the managing partners and the firm’s management committee,” said Shardul Shroff.
“The move also reflects the ‘2 wheels of the bicycle’ concept through promotion of both family and non family talent,” he added, referring to the idea that one wheel represents the founding family partners, while the other represents the non-founder family, which are both co-dependent and won’t function without each other.
The BCG plan also envisages the firm to grow to 1,000 lawyers and 100 partners by 2017.
The size of the partnership now stands at 68 and approximately 550 lawyers.
Corporate practice (5)
Amarchand has promoted corporate and M&A lawyers Amita Choudhary, Ipsita Dutta, Aysswarya Murthi in Mumbai (all three are 2005 campus recruits, pictured above).
Choudhary specialises in public M&A, corporate restructuring and joint ventures (JV), Dutta focuses on financial regulatory work, and Murthi works primarily in the financial services sector on corporate and M&A.
Bangalore saw the promotion of Rashmi Pradeep, who joined the firm in 2003 and specialises on corporate and private equity in South India.
In Delhi Vidyut Gulati was elevated, having joined the firm in 2006 as a lateral hire. She has experience in M&A and corporate work and investments in the infrastructure space.
Competition team (3)
They are Amarchand Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff’s son-in-law and daughter respectively and joined in 2009.
Principal associate Nisha Uberoi got the nod in the Mumbai office’s competition team. She had first joined the firm from campus in 2002, followed by stints at Ashurst and Rajah & Tann in Singapore.
Disputes (3)
Ruchi Mahajan and Jasleen Oberoi, both of whom have 12 years of post-qualification experience (PQE), were promoted to partner in Delhi.
Mahajan has been with the firm for nine years.
Oberoi joined in 2008 from Dua Associates, where she was a partner.
Both will focus on developing the practice relating to disputes, corruption laws and white collar crime.
Indranil Deshmukh was elevated as litigation partner in Mumbai, having joined the firm in 2003 from college. He will focus on litigation, as well as developing litigation in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai.
CM and IP (2)
Intellectual property (IP) and patents specialist Nitin Masilamani (joined in 2002 from campus) was made up in Delhi.
Mumbai managing partner Cyril Shroff added that the promotions reflected the primary strategy of organic growth and a deep internal bench strength. “This gives us the confidence that we are firmly on track to achieve our ambitions set out as part of BCG engagement, which would make us one of the largest in Asia.”
The partner promotions take retrospective effect from 1 April 2012. Associate promotions will be announced later this month or early next month, it is understood.
In October 2011 Amarchand promoted eight lawyers internally to partner, as five entered the non-family equity pool.
Amarchand Delhi partner and tax head Aseem Chawla resigned from the firm, reported Legally India yesterday.
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And anyway, it isn't like they've been given equity at their sub-30 ages. They're being designated partners, that's all.
Is is that the aggressive policy adopted by AMSS in a quest to achieve '3.0'is getting hard on the freshers. Shouldn't AMSS be concentrating on making the workplace more comfortable for it's employees??
I once aspired to join AMSS after law school, but after learning about the fact that more that 40% of the 2011 graduates have put in their papers (I know at-least 11 of them) or are considering other options, I have reservations about the firm.
AMSS, please do not be over-aggressive...u should concentrate on retaining talent than just hiring talent!!
All the Best for 3.0.
Make no mistake, this place is demanding. The learning curve is steep. If you want to pocket a big fat retainer while doing nothing, this is not the place for you. But if you keep at it and are willing, the experience would nothing compared to any other law firm.
AMSS is also not willing to have people who want to have short CV stints. They want people to have a long term career. So, it is difficult to retain someone, who joined with the objective to complete few years and then move on.
Young graduates joining straight out of law school seldom realize these facts. So, when the realization kicks in, they put in their papers. In some cases, attrition could be for a variety of other reasons, but in case of freshers, this is mostly the case.
AMSS needs to streamline a lot of things to move to version 3.0 and streamlining recruitment is the most important of them all. They need to provide clear picture to young students and recruit only those who show aptitude.
Also great team at delhi in competition law now. . Really progressive news for Indian legal market.
I hear that [...] that was making so much noise a few months ago has run into serious internal issues because of reckless lateral hiring. Has put freeze on hires. Internal stars have no hope since firm getting crowded. The amss news is so refreshing. There is clearly a lot tobe said for organic growth. Far far better though very tedious to implement. This is the global model though. When market opens I can only see amss as a serious competitor for foreign firms. Whenever that happens.
Nisha reports to Ms. Shroff in Delhi. All in the family! When will AMSS be managed like an international firm???
Trust me. You don't want these ones in the Kitchen... :)
We have allowed this comment to go up since it clearly appears to be ironic and criticises, rather than propagates, inequality.
Please let me know if you disagree or this comment is nevertheless in bad taste and should be moderated.
Jeez, you sound like an AMSS associate, Kian. :)
In fact, as far as I am aware, pretty much everyone who was up for partnership has been given a partnership (certainly in Mumbai I have not heard of anyone who was up for partnership who has been passed over)- so the question of distilling quality does not arise- I wonder if any of these lawyers have any clients of their own, or are they glorified senior associates to service Cyril's clients?
Firstly, not everyone who was up for partnership has been given one. From what i hear, it was a multi-stage exercise where some people made it and some didn't.
Secondly, partnerships are not just given out like candy. They have to be earned. AMSS has a reputation to keep (one which takes years to develop and one small mistake to destroy) so surely they would have kept an eye on quality.
Thirdly, these new partners would surely have clients of their own. it would be silly to believe they would be invited to the partnership without bringing any value.
And in relation to your batch promotions idea. So a quarter of the people who made partners only 3 years ago have made equity partner. That sounds like a pretty good return and model in my book. That's precisely what the pyramid should look like.
And your final comment scarcely warrants a response as you are clearly bitter over something AMSS has done to you. Do you genuinely believe a firm with ambitions of having 1000 lawyers is being geared only sustain and grow one team?
And I completely agree that what I think doesn't matter.
What matters is that you are convinced an army of a 1000 lawyers is being programmed to cater to the needs of just one team.
That is something I cannot agree with. No matter how little I think or know.
Additionally, so either I know nothing about AMSS or I am a propaganda machine (that would imply I know quite a bit about AMSS), yet you cannot figure out which one of the these two polar opposites I am? I bet you use that same intellect to make assumptions on how firms (that you are not a part of) function.
Lawyer is clearly an Amarchand insider. You have to be either very ignorant or plain stupid to not see that those two are not necessarily contradictory
I'm going to have to disagree with you on the "salaried partners being created to serve Cyril's clients" bit though. Is there any evidence to suggest that salaried partners only work under Shroff partners? Do Ashwath in Bombay, or Gunjan and Jatin in Delhi, have no salaried partners being created from the associates under them? If they do, then will these salaried partners not be servicing their clients, thus increasing their claim to a larger stake in the equity pool? Are you suggesting that there is some scheme that has been hatched to ensure that only principal associates from teams headed by Shroff partners make salaried partner? Surely that isn't true!
Also, while often new partners don't have sufficient clients to sustain a stand-alone business, their elevation to partner might be crucial to them creating such business relationships. As general counsel of a top-tier company in India, if I was paying Amarchand Mangaldas to do my work for me, I don't think I'd be happy with the team doing my work being headed by a principal associate. The partner tag is pretty important to most clients too.
Thanks.
As a client, I would never let any of these younger lot handle my matters alone, specially important ones. There has to be a Cyril/Ashwat like partner supervising them.
The new partners at Delhi, except Naval and Shweta, are not even rockstars. Their closeness to the people who matter is well known. They are good lawyers, but do not fit the shoes of a partner.
AMSS wants to achieve 1000 lawyers, but if this is how they plan to achieve it, then it is going to become another mediocre firm.
The quality of associates has also gone down. They really need to work on it.
As a client, I prefer AMSS over Luthra/Trilegal/JSA any day, despite young people handling my matter. But if this is how they are managing talent and developing talent, I would have no where to go.
Let those foreign firms come in so that these sleeping Indian firms can wake up and smell the coffee.
As of now, all my work, at any law firm is specifically entrusted to a senior partner, these youngsters do it in practice, but under the supervision of a senior partner.
Dude, are you serious? Shweta is Shardul's daughter, and Naval is her husband. Leave aside aspersions of doubt as to the others' competence, the least you can do is not distinguish these two as not being close to the people who matter.
Cyril is smart to have her in Mumbai. He has proved his business acumen yet again. DELHI won't be happy with this alternate competition team in Mumbai.
The Chopras in Delhi are family [...].
Well done Nisha.
Nisha Uberoi- one of the smartest lawyers around. Very competent and knowledgeable. Formidable reputation in Singapore and now in India. Singapore's loss is Mumbai's gain.
Congrats to all.
"None of us"???? Ever heard of Samir Gandhi,Nisha Uberoi, Anand Pathak, Farhad Sorabjee, Manas Chaudhri and Amitabh Kumar. Not to forget Shuva Mandal!!! Hilarious propaganda...
NLSIU: 4
DU Law Faculty: 3
Nalsar: 2
NUJS: 1
GLC: 1
ILS: 1
Promoting talent that deserves promotion. Some of the other so called "top tier" firms need to follow suit!!
Some of the top tier and most of the 2nd and 3rd tier firms should set aside their tier 1 ego and promote talant that deserves promotion!
Guess, this kind of money is paid to PA. Salaried partners would be getting above 1 crore. Anyone in the know?
From other research and market information, I understand that the insiders, or not, above are fairly close to the mark. At a firm like Amarchand, junior partners may start on Rs 70 lakh in some practice areas, up to Rs 1 crore or even more in some cases with bonus.
Again, this fluctuates quite widely across practice areas... Will keep you posted.
If you haven't yet, please encourage people to participate in the salary survey and take part yourself to get more insider data once we've done a final analysis.
Best wishes
Kian
Best regards
Kian
First NUJS Partner at a major law firm - I dont think any of the startups would take offense. Congratulations Ipsi!! :)
Other than Naval Chopra and Shweta Shroff Chopra (for obvious reasons), none of those made partner can in the short or medium run aspire to be a rainmaker. It would be interesting to see if any of these partners brings in a new client or repeat mandates from existing clients on their own. The only ones who are known as go-to lawyers in their own right are Rashmi Pradeep, Amita Chaudhry and Gaurav Gupte. Its still too early to say if Nisha Uberoi and Nitin Masilamani can fulfill this role, and for the rest, I can only hope that they prove that they are better than associates on this count.
I always imagined that domestic and international firms looked at the ability to generate business (as opposed to merely client servicing) as the key distinguishing factor between an associate and a partner. I am happy to be corrected, but I think AMSS is unusual in its approach of promoting people based only on tenure and client servicing ability.
Perhaps that is the approach the Shroffs have adopted. But it hardly seems to be the trend across the Indian legal market. Almost every partner at AZB, other than A, Z an B, has an independent client base, which they need to demonstrate to even be made a partner. A lot of senior people who return to Indian firms from US or UK firms do so only because they are unable to bring in the clients required to make it to partnership. However, at AMSS, this clearly doesn't seem to be a factor. Even some of the existing, older partners are happy to trade on the AMSS name, and don't work to retain clients, let along bringing in new ones.
On the point of whether AMSS needs new clients, I think this is hardly worth debating. If they intend to grow to a 1000 lawyers, they need new clients. Existing clients aren't suddenly going to pay extra to allow AMSS to grow, nor are the other firms in the market folding up any time soon, to force companies to flock to them. I don't think its fair on the Shroff brothers to have to make rain for all the partners under them, especially when the partners want to be treated as true partners.
Of course, over a 20 year period, anyone can become a rainmaker. The point is whether they can prove their client development skills to meet the 3.0 targets. On this I have serious doubts.
1. Not all law firms and not even all partners at major law firms are rainmakers.
2. The Shroff family will remain head and shoulders above any other lawyer in pulling in work on account of their business, political and personal connections.
3. Currently at AMSS, most non-family partners only service matters brought in by the family partners. There are some exceptions, but even these rely on the AMSS brand name.
BUT, where I disagree with you is that certain firms like AZB, Trilegal and JSA do not promoter lawyers to partnership solely to service work brought in by the "name" partners. They approach business and client development far more seriously than I have seen with AM partners. This is the way international firms have managed to survive beyond the founding members, and have become institutions.
Let's take a hypothetical scenario - if the entire Shroff family were to vanish, would AMSS retain its position in the market? I don't see that problem with AZB if the big 3 were to vanish. Compare the ratio of rainmakers to partners at AZB Delhi to the ratio of rainmakers to partners in AMSS Delhi, and you will have your answer.
Luthra relies on the big man's excellent connections with the government to get their own work, and amongst the big firms, I think they get the least proportion of their work as referrals from international firms.
With US and UK firms which do not have strong referral arrangements in India, I agree that these alums will get dibs on the India-bound work. But that does not appear to have been a criteria for these particular individuals.
You are absolutely correct. A Partners role is to create new business and at the same time, lead the team. Both these abilities need to be weighed in equal proportions. Sadly some of our firms do not follow this concept.
Or are you the editor of "go to lawyers" weekly - where you have done some sort of study ? What makes people like you think you are qualified in any way to identify the "go to" lawyers at amss ? What a waste of time.
I would simply congratulate everyone who has made it to the partnership and IGNORE comments like these.
I have neither claimed to be the editor of a weekly nor the author of a study. What I certainly do is to try and understand which lawyers I can go to as a client, and I deal with AM lawyers across the ranks on a daily basis.
In any case, if you feel I am being unfair to them, then you can action your suggestion and choose not to read my comment.
I think the the firm's collective judgment is best qualified to decide whom to elevate to partnership.
I can understand expressing disagreement with the general strategy of a firm - but to express opinions on individual lawyers and suggest that the others are not good enough (especially when you are doing it anonymously) ... thats just not done.
On the point of anonymity, pot-kettle-black.
There is little point in comparing Indian firms, with the firms in the US or London. The fact is that the market is different. Firms like amarchand are investing in young lawyers and giving them a chance to carve a niche for themselves. I congratulate CSS for having the patience and vision to do what he is doing.
On the question of whether some of them could have done with an extra year here or there ... Maybe you have a point - but client pulling ability can only follow becoming partner. The future of these lawyers will depend on their ability to do some thing more now that they have entered the partnership (here i agree the existing AMSS partnership falls short). Lets at least give them a chance here ....
I do agree with you that they can grow into the role, and they should be given a chance. But at the risk of sounding repetitive, the idea was not to question the individuals, but the firm's policy.
But I dont see why Rainmakers would continue to remain in AMSS, because of the glass ceiling in equity and because frankly bonuses do not depend on how much work you generate, true rainmakers will inevitably quit...
it's true. no lawyers from the carribean on the promotion list!
I cannot stop laughing at this comment, which at best is idiotic.. to say the very least.
Kian- You should definitely filter such comments that have absolutely NO BEARING on what is being discussed.
Are these promotions essentially promotions to salaried partner designation or has anyone got even 0.0000001 per cent. equity? If not, don't you think that should be brought out in the report?
@Kian- Hope my effort at going roundabout rather than using one word will help you refrain from the "scrap this comment" button!
Just imagine I finding it appalling! Considering how low my standards are! :-)
Dont worry, you deserve what you have got! Dont let comments from low lives like Rakhi bother you! Peace!
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Good idea to highlight new comments - will see if we can come up with some software solution.
Best wishes,
Kian
At least they HAVE an apple cart. Some of the firms that you mention here don't event know the true value of all the apples in their basket!
Best comment till now on this thread!
Please tell us about your micro finance institution and I will request Kian to publish it...
Dont Feel Bad....you will also have your day...Every dog does...Bow wow!
At the least, you don't seem to know head and tail about corporate law/M&A!
and that too after having spent 5 years! I think you use the word moronic well for yourself. bow wow!
We don't need a caching centre for the forms, but an adoption agency which will find you the right (read Senior IAS and business leaders)adoptive family before you can apply to the 'elite' firm. There is more social mobility in a Magic Circle firm than AMSS, India's Big Law!
Handsome / Beautiful
Good financial back ground
Good command over English language
Artistic passion
Good typing speed
less family responsibility
Staying close to office
a passion for self glorification
love to stay more time in the office
less intelligent than seniors/owners
well connected to enable the firm for beneficial usage
less entrepreneurial quality etc
These comments are meant to be vetted, right?
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