Remfry & Sagar intellectual property (IP) litigation and corporate commercial head Vikram Grover has left the firm and started up Groverlaw, a corporate commercial and litigation practice in Delhi.

He had resigned from the firm on 8 April and launched Groverlaw on 15 April - the day on which his notice period at Remfry had ended. His departure leaves the firm with nine other partners, including managing partner Ashwin Julka.

“I spoke with a lot of people and I was told that for a person like me it was better to move in-house,” he said, adding: “Mine is not the last independent firm nor is it the first […]. People younger to me, with half my standing, have set up their own shops and that is very encouraging.”

Grover started his career in 1998 with Remfry and was made a partner in 2005, most recently heading an IP litigation team of 12 lawyers and a corporate commercial team of four.

Grover obtained an LLB from the University of Leeds in the UK in 1996 and an LLM in international commercial law from the UK’s University of Nottingham in 1998. He is also qualified to practice as a solicitor in England and Wales.

“I think clients also want, sort of, a change. I’m sure they also have cost pressures, they are also willing to try out newer outfits, so there will be space [for newer IP boutiques], not to say that the bigger firms will not continue to do well,” he commented.

Groverlaw would begin by handling trademarks and corporate advisory to the pharmaceutical sector, possibly also expanding into IP enforcement, which had been one of his focus areas throughout his career.

“Only time will tell, which area will fetch the most… I don’t think I would position myself as someone who was in [a big] firm and that is why there is a premium to what I would charge. I would charge just what any issue deserves and [Groverlaw’s billing rates] would be very, very competitive,” he said.

Groverlaw is currently operating from an office-space attached to Grover’s Green Park Extension home in Delhi, but he said he would move to a 4,000-square-foot office in Gurgaon’s Sushant Lok within six months.

One patent lawyer, Ritu Mendiratta, is currently working as a retainer at Groverlaw. Grover said that he would look to hire other team members on a retainer basis, and work “completely independently”, without any referral arrangements with other firms.

Grover said that while he had worked on complex IP litigations at Remfry with Fortune 500 companies, he did not intend to poach such clients and would instead focus on securing new clients.

Remfry & Sagar managing partner Ashwin Julka commented: “People have their own aspirations. [Grover] wanted to start his own [firm] and we wish him all the best. He has been a part of the firm for a long time and the grounding he got here would serve him well.”

Julka added that Grover’s transactions at the firm would be handled by litigation partner CV Brijesh, five managing associates and a partner designate. “That’s the beauty of an institution; it is not individual-driven. We have 80 lawyers [at the firm] and at least two or three people work on every transaction, that is why transitions are very, very smooth.”

Remfry’s founder Dr Vidya Sagar passed away in February 2011.