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What is your take on SAM Mumbaiโ€™s IA/Disputes team? Two new Partner appointments (Niyati Gandhi and Shreya Jain) How is the work/team culture, nature of work?
SJ has solid credentials (Harvard grad) and was covered by GAR when she was promoted. Was also Rishab Guptaโ€™s protege. High hopes!!
Extremely high attrition in team and too much domestic litigation. Not the best work culture mate
The three break away teams (Anagram Saraf and Khaitan) are not superb either.
The team was built on the shoulders of a giant (Rishab Gupta) and none of the breakaways teams or SAM juniors combined can match up to half his brilliance.
Agreed - also Rishabh Jogani (MRP Advisory in Dubai), and Arjun Doshi (who's At Adani Airports now)
That particular vertical at MRP is extremely toxic.
Are we talking about Jogani? Youโ€™re clearly a minority opinion in this case.

His team has incredible attrition.
โ€œdidnโ€™t have a foreign qualificationโ€ ?

Who in MRP has foreign qualifications except the Partners?
โ€œbest boss Iโ€™ve ever hadโ€ - Buddy, I sympathise.
Very top heavy team with a lot of managerial issues and bad case management.
The team is NLSIU/MIDS and โ€œbig universitiesโ€ / foreign degree obsessed and youโ€™ll see a lot of cliques and favouritism within these university groups. Every year someone leaves to MIDS and someone joins from MIDS ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ Theyโ€™re just hiring on brand names.
Why not. The MIDS brand surpasses Harvard and Oxford and with very good reasons
I am sorry - when did someone leaving to MIDS and someone joining from MIDS become terrible? It's the best in the world for arbitration, only natural the country's best talent will want to study there!!
The only two places where someone with solid credentials from MIDS has landed in India were Khaitan and SAM. And for good reason, theyโ€™re the best teams in India by a huge margin!
This is clearly someone who didnโ€™t make the cut to MIDS ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚ Itโ€™s a super competitive course with tonnes of applications and only 35-40 spots.
Masters in International Dispute Settlement - a top notch course offered by the Graduate Institute and University of Geneva.
Niyati seems pleasant but it's highly questionable how much traction or work she'll be able to put on her own merit. Same goes with all the young partners really. The team post-Rishab Gupta is nothing exceptional.
None of the juniors have been able to pull in the kind of matters Rishabh had - highly unlikely that theyโ€™ll be able to. Go for Shaneen Parikh for good arbitration work.
+1

Shaneen is the best. Great mentor and fantastic work!
If the team is so great why would someone at Kartikeyโ€™s credentials leave so soon for Khaitan?
Kartikey left because he was wise and realised the managerial issues at SAM. Plus, he has more freedom to run his team at Khaitan.
No one at SAM thinks of Kartikeyโ€™s exit as a loss.
The fact that he has changed 6 jobs in 13 years (a verifiable fact) should give you some insight. Unless, youโ€™re saying all those 6 places also had issues?
Ditto. He didnโ€™t stick to any job for more than 1.5ish years (Kirkland K&S CC SAM). Clearly the problems were with all four places.
Kartikey worked with three of the topmost practices in the world. Who at SAM has anything even close to it?
Good point.

Letโ€™s also stick to the subject of the post - SAM Mumbai - International Arbitration. Not SAM v. KCO or SAM v. Kartikey.
Come on, his team is just writing advisory memos, the world knows it. Canโ€™t come close to SAM.
Whatโ€™s the salary difference in SAM and KCO?
Rishabโ€™s former team (SAM) definitely has potential to become such a nourishing ground. They should actively start poaching good talent at mid-tier and junior level from other teams too.

May the force be with them. ๐Ÿ’ช๐Ÿ’ช
Letโ€™s not forget that the real reason the team broke apart when RG left is because too many big egos could not be held together at SAM. Hence the breakaways from Rishabโ€™s PAs.
Has anyone else noticed Kartikey has deleted his SAM experience from LinknedIn? Clearly all wasnโ€™t well in paradise.
He didnโ€™t have a clean / happy exit, as you can see from comments here.
Not sure about Niyati's credentials or competence.
frankly i wish i could join this team. i worked on a couple of matters across her and i generally found niyati to be quite sharp and charming. it takes time to build a reputation and win business on your own accord.
No buddy, the only travel youโ€™ll do is Bombay HC.
What I thought was that I travel to Singapore or london for an arbitration matter or atleast domestic travel can you please shed some light on this ?
I was at SAM for 1.5 years and I worked on multiple Bombay HC enforcements, one state entity claim against India and several advisories and random shit. Did not step out of Bombay for work, except one brief trip to Bangalore.
In most teams, people taken for hearings (especially international ones) are SAs or above and associates support virtually. Itโ€™s unlikely that clients will approve international travel for more than 2-3 people
Please tell me which country have SAM SAs traveled to. No one has attended any hearings in Singapore/Dubai/Europe.
At least 2 SA / PAs went to Singapore and London, last year for international arbitration hearings. People also routinely travel for domestic arbitration and litigation hearings in the country. During covid period, all international arbitration hearings were virtual.
Not sure where your information is coming from. SA/PAs have routinely travelled for domestic and international hearings, including in London and Singapore last year as well as domestic hearings within India.
Work in the team has severely dried up. Predominantly domestic mandates.
Any leads on the kind of matters Niyati deals with? How big is her team?
Apparently the team doesnโ€™t have a lot of IA work. โ–ฎโ–ฎโ–ฎ
How does junior level (A1-A2) hiring look like in this team?
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