Ernst & Young (EY) director of fraud investigation and dispute services Ajay Upadhyay will joined AZB & Partners in Delhi Mumbai in August with his team of five, according to Bar & Bench.
Correction: Upadhyay is joining AZB Mumbai, not Delhi as reported earlier.
He will be head of compliance and investigation at the firm and told Bar & Bench: “For us basically, it will be a joint approach where the law firm will lead the investigation (since they are capable of giving strategic legal advice) and the audit firms/forensic firms will support them. The firm will focus on investigations under FCPA, UK Bribery Act and Prevention of Corruption Act and also various other reporting obligations to authorities.”
AZB Delhi managing partner Ajay Bahl confirmed his joining to Legally India.
Upadhyay joined AZB in August after five years at EY, and five years at KPMG until 2010, according to his Linked-in profile.
He is a qualified chartered accountant and Bachelor of Commerce graduate from the University of Pune.
Comments
His 5 team members i assume would be CA's, who would have been 'employed' at E & Y, will now work on a retainer with AZB .
Oh wait - it hasn't! Can someone please explain how this is legal? Dr. Bhasin, you sent a notice to the Big 4 for allegedly 'practicing' law - is this alright with you?
What is your take on Multi Disciplinary Practices? Are you in favour of such moves?
Kian, would really like to hear your views on this!
My opinion is that there's nothing wrong in principle with different professionals under one roof, to offer a variety of services to clients.
Let's face it, much of transactional law boils down to consulting and structuring, and likewise, some of the Big 4 Consultancy and tax work is close to transactional law and drafting.
I think it's a natural progression of the business realities and client needs that both can be provided, and it's a bit of a blinkered view to ban it.
And if a client is happy to instruct a non-lawyer to put a transaction together, and they're aware of the risks, and they don't need a watertight 'legal' opinion but are happy with the consultant's opinion, then why the hell not? It's a free market and companies are fairly sophisticated consumers...
However, I think there's a purpose to keeping functions doing auditing and pure legal advice (and pure litigation) separate, to avoid conflicts of interest and keep additional checks and balances on corporates. I.e., the same entity (or quasi-entity) should not be doing audits / accounts while also advising a company's board of liabilities, etc.
Anything in between, I think should be a free for all competitive space determined by who serves clients best...
So no he hasn't joined a competitor or started out on his own, but he is definitely not at AZB.