What does one say about a firm that a) delays increments, despite saying in writing, that it will be done by a certain date and delays it by almost 2 months; (b) rolls out a standard 10% hike and has been doing so for the last 3 years- no band revisions unlike Trilegal and no transparency; and (c) and after announcing it and saying that the arrears will be credited shortly, in writing, fails to actually put their mouth on where the money is and hasnt paid it as yet?! Does the firm not have enough cash? Is it the beginning of a cash flow issue (despite having a multi managing partnership model and lord -emeritus concept above the two of the two managing partners, not to mention countless family members in the partnership ranks) at firms like SAM? A back of the tissue math : with about 600 lawyers, with the average salary bill being 40L, a 10% increment is 4.5L. Arrears for 5 months is roughly 2L, a lawyer. Entire increment arrears bill is 12 cr? OK, 15 cr at the worst? Do these jokers not have this much free cash lying in their reserves? It's just one high performing partners take anyway and the shroffs are worth what 500 cr? Easily? What a sham.

Thank you for sharing this. Things have gotten that bad is it? Atleast in the past, when they delayed and when they announced the increments, it usually came on the same day or worst case- on the day salary for the month was paid out. I know that these guys announced increments last week and so assuming if it hasn't been paid as yet, it didn't come with your salary. Real shame. I was reconsidering moving back to the firm and if things are this bad, a hello my ex-partner boss is not worth at all.

Just giving you the counter-perspective. If you are someone who's posting this in a public forum, you are disloyal and don't deserve to be in the firm anyway. Of course, what the shroffs would miss is that there's no reason for you to be loyal to a firm that's pathetically bad in so many ways and in particular talent/people management. I just said it's the counter-perspective. I didn't say it was right.

Somebody needs to show this thread to the managing partner from South Bombay. Does he want to continue to be associated with a coterie like this, and be seen as being a participant in this mis-management? No one who's from the team who oversees what's Said about the firm in social media, would have the guts to show this to the shroffs anyway.

Just going to question the math. The 2L in salary arrears for 5 months, might work okay for about the 100 RPs and 100 PAs in the firm. That's a total of approx 4cr. Balance folks (SA arrears for 5 months- approx 1.25L, Associate arrears for approx 5 months, approx 1L). So even if you take 1.25L X 400 lawyers= that's 6cr at the best. Hence the total salary arrears bill cannot be higher than 10Cr. That also assumes that everyone gets a 10% increment, which might just not be the case and in some cases, let's say about 50-75 lawyers will not get an increment at all (either due to bad performance or having just joined the firm). That the shroffs, therefore, don't have 10 cr is the correct statement from a math perspective.

SSS and his family are worth over 2000 cr. They can pay arrears anytime they want, without it even affecting their net worth (even assuming that the firm is undergoing a cash crunch).

It would be relevant to recall that during the Saraf vs Luthra case, Luthra coughed up 75 cr overnight, without any hesitation, as if its pocket change to him. This from a guy who has been running a firm for around 20 yrs and now compare that to SSS whose family has been in the game since over a century.

No holding emails? I once got such grief from the PAs and my partner for not sending a holding email at about the 26 hour mark- for not sending over to client, our details for getting registered on the system. The bill was to be paid 6 months later anyway and I hadn't slept for 24 hours working on some mundane port EPC contract. 🙃. All easy until the shoe is on the other foot.

Name one firm which doesn't engage in this fishy behaviour and where the increments and bonuses are on time? For a firm like SAM, they should really be setting the standards. But alas, not much can be done with these gujjus. All senior law firm partners are to blame - for having given the shroffs this much credence.

They do watch. But to the exception of Trilegal, don't think it makes a difference to anyone - in almost all cases, the folks who are responsible to report this are too scared to even paraphrase this to the gujju and Parsi promoters. Even if it gets escalated, these law firms have the 'we are the best' syndrome. People can cry all they want, but until they threaten to quit, no point pandering to their small problems, is the attitude.

Well said, for the folks in ivory towers or rather farm houses in Delhi/bungalows in South Bombay, any amount t upto 5L is lesser than their monthly spend on house upkeep. For us lesser mortals, 50K is two months of grocery spend (and in some cases, Includes entertainment spend). Shame on those running this sweatshop of a firm. Ashamed, I've done time here in the past.

I guess I am to blame- had planned a big purchase of 3L on the day the increments got announced. Going by past practise and the expectation that it would be paid out "shortly" as the letter itself indicated- I went ahead with the purchase. My credit card bill is due next week. Have to ask my wife for this or break one of my investments- these things might sound like a joke, but it leads to significant marital stress and issues. What's the point of all the money in the world,when the people who work for you, curse you from the bottom of their hearts? When you keep them in a forever point of stress. Either through work or through things like these. This, when the family pretty much takes 50% of the profits of the firm. Not nice Mr and Mrs Shroff. This is getting out of hand and quite irritating post the bad bonuses this March.