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Saikrishna to convert to equity partnership, maybe full-service, as adding policy vertical with Luthra’s Ameet Datta

Rajagopal: Aiming for equity
Rajagopal: Aiming for equity
Exclusive: Twelve-year-old intellectual property (IP) boutique Saikrishna & Associates aims to convert from a sole proprietorship to an equity-sharing by April 2013 and will aim to become a full service firm, said its founding partner Saikrishna Rajagopal, as ex-Luthra & Luthra partner Ameet Datta joined yesterday.

Datta, who had resigned from Luthra and was considering joining Saikrishna Legally India reported last month, became one of six Saikrishna partners yesterday (2 July).

Datta said that he has known Rajagopal and the rest of the firm for many years: “This has been on the boil for a long time, and has worked out. I am thankful we’ve come together very neatly and very nicely. There are a lot of synergies that I have with Sai.”

Rajagopal said that Datta would generally strengthen the IP practice, as well as add a new policy vertical, following Datta’s recent success in lobbying for an amendment to the Copyright Amendment Bill.

The firm currently has practices in IP enforcement, IP prosecution and IP transactional work that includes the acquisition of IP and content, as well as in a general IP advisory vertical.

Rajagopal said that he himself handled mostly IP litigation but in the last one-and-a-half years he has also acted in significant non-IP matters in the content and competition law space, which he would increasingly focus on after Datta’s arrival.

Saikrishna currently operates an ad hoc sole proprietorship model, where each partner receives variable income division after meeting a billing threshold. “But come April [2013], we are looking to moving into a completely equity oriented mode,” vowed Rajagopal, explaining that he and Datta would work together in the coming days to iron out the details.

Rajagopal added: “You must remember that the firm is 12 years old and was started by me, and the reason we haven’t moved to an equity mode altogether, is because we felt that the firm’s financials weren’t healthy enough to move to an equity model, in terms of what partners will get.”

“But in last year and a half and couple of years, all that has changed, and the firm has seen dramatic rise in visibility and revenue.”

While the exact nature of the equity sharing was not yet decided, he said that he was hoping that “everyone in the firm stands a realistic chance of making it in terms of sheer competence […] rather than any kinds of considerations in terms of seniority, family connections” and so on.

When asked whether the firm was looking to become a full service firm in future, Rajagopal said that there was “certainly” an aspiration now. “When we started off we wanted to be number one IP firm. But the kind of high quality non-IP stuff we’ve done, has really whetted our appetite. We’re certainly looking for a larger slice of the cake, so to speak.”

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