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Cyril & Shardul register new Amarchand.com domains, as mediators give Shroffs green light to start new offices (+ some big moves)

Cyril vs Shardul: It's on
Cyril vs Shardul: It's on

It is understood that the mediators between brothers Cyril and Shardul Shroff, the Mumbai- and Delhi-region managing partners of Amarchand Mangaldas respectively, last week gave the green light for both to begin setting up offices on each others’ respective turfs.

Domains named

In the most visible sign yet of the all-but-certain 1 April split between the Amarchand Mumbai and Delhi regions, as first reported by Legally India in November 2014, the Mumbai and Delhi sides of the family have now registered internet domains of separate firms.

It is understood that under the current terms of the mediation, the amarchand.com domain, which had been used for emails by all Amarchand lawyers, would be surrendered by both sides of the firm.

According to publicly available information with the internet domain registrar http://whois.icann.org, Shardul S. Shroff registered domain names ShardulAmarchand.com and sssamarchand.com three days ago, on 25 February 2015.

The domain name CyrilAmarchand.com and five others were registered by Rishabh Shroff, the son of Amarchand Mumbai managing partner Cyril S Shroff, on 4 December 2014 The other domains registered by Rishabh were amarchandmumbai.com, amarchandindia.com, camarchand.com, amarchandcss.com, and amarchandcyril.com.

Legally India first reported last month that the Mumbai-headquartered firm was likely to be called Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

On Tuesday, 24 February, the Bombay high court formally extended the deadline to provide the mediators’ report to 31 March 2015, in line with last month’s reports of both firms splitting by 1 April.

Strategic concerns

It is understood that both brothers are pursuing different strategies to enter each others’ markets, with Cyril initially focusing on entering Delhi, and Shardul looking to open offices at least in Mumbai and Bangalore.

The firm’s Mumbai region includes Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Delhi includes Kolkata, Gurgaon and Ahmedabad, however, it is understood that both sides of the family have already been operating semi-independently in Ahmedabad for at least several months.

Cyril: Organic strategy

According to authoritative sources, Cyril has communicated internally that he will most likely move to Delhi on a part-time basis in the initial months of setting up an office in Delhi, in order to crack the new market.

On Saturday, 31 January 2015, the Mumbai-region offices held an internal town hall-style meeting, in which the firm was looking for volunteers to move internally to kick-start the Delhi office.

It is understood that a number of partners and senior lawyers have so far volunteered, though no final decisions or announcements have been made to date.

In addition, the firm continues to be in the process of aggressively hiring lateral talent in Delhi.

Shardul: Casting a wide net

According to a multiple authoritative sources, legal recruiters instructed by Shardul and the Delhi office’s internal HR team has been reaching out to several Mumbai-based firms and partners, in a bid to recruit a starting line-up for its office in the city.

Legally India had first reported on 22 December 2014 already that Amarchand Delhi was in early-stage talks with lawyers in Bangalore and Mumbai to open offices there, which Shardul denied at the time.

Both brothers declined to comment when contacted.

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