14 Indian law firm partners and senior associates will be named as “up and comers” and “associates to watch” in legal directory Chambers and Partners’ yet-to-be released Asia Pacific 2014 guide.
According to data shared with Legally India by Chambers’, its latest guide features 375 lawyers across 88 domestic Indian law firms that have been ranked a total of 491 times in different practice areas, with Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners picking up the greatest number of citations.
Upcoming and to be watched out
The “up and comers”, according to Chambers, are partners who “do not yet have an established reputation but who are driving their firm’s growth”, while the “associates to watch” are senior associates “recognised for their work in the background of major deals”. [Clarification: The below list does not include previous years’ “up-and-comers” – a list of them is published in the comments below]
‘Up and comers’
- S&R Associates capital markets partner Bhakta Patnaik,
- Khaitan & Co competition partner Avaantika Kakkar,
- Sarin & Co managing partner Nitin Sarin,
- Rajani Singhania & Partners corporate partner Reena Grover,
- Platinum Partners M&A partner Gaurav Desai,
- Crestlaw Partners disputes partner Arun Kumar,
- Luthra & Luthra employment partner Suyash Srivastava,
- IC Legal private equity partner Tejesh Chitlangi,
- Nishith Desai Associates TMT partner Gowree Gokhale, and
- ALMT Legal private equity partner Dhanya Menon.
‘Associates to watch’
- Talwar Thakore & Associates capital markets associate Rahul Gulati,
- Samvad Partners M&A associate Ashwini Vittalachar,
- Trilegal employment associate Atul Gupta, and
- Udwadia Udeshi & Argus Partners private equity associate Adity Chaudhury.
| Firm Name | Individual rankings |
|---|---|
| Amarchand & Mangaldas | 29 |
| AZB & Partners | 28 |
| J Sagar Associates | 25 |
| Khaitan & Co | 21 |
| Luthra & Luthra | 17 |
| Trilegal | 14 |
| Economic Laws Practice | 11 |
| Samvad Partners | 11 |
| Kochhar & Co | 8 |
| Wadia Ghandy & Co | 8 |
| ALMT Legal | 8 |
| Dua Associates | 8 |
| S&R Associates | 8 |
Ranked performers and stars
“Up and comers” and “associates to watch” are not included in the final ranking for firms, where lawyers at the 10 largest Indian law firms accounted for 163 professionals across all ‘bands’ in the 2014 guide.
Correction: The data initially received from Chambers erroneously stated that the rankings counted the number of lawyers ranked at each firm. In fact, the number in the rankings reflects how many rankings the firm has in different practice areas, with individual lawyers potentially being able to be ranked in more than one area. The error is regretted.
Amarchand Mangaldas lodged the most number of lawyer ranks – 29 - including Mumbai managing partner Cyril Shroff and Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff who were two among seven Indian “star practitioners” last year.
AZB & Partners follows on Amarchand’s heels with 28 individual ranks for lawyers including “star practitioners” and co-founders Zia Mody and Ajay Bahl. Mody is the only woman star practitioner from India.
J Sagar Associates (JSA) has 25 ranks by its lawyers, followed by Khaitan & Co with 21, Luthra with 17 and Trilegal with 14.
Economic Laws Practice (ELP) is tied with Samv?d Partners – formerly known as Narasappa Doraswamy Raja – each with 11 individual ranks by its lawyers. Kochhar & Co, Wadia Ghandy & Co, ALMT Legal, Dua Associates and S&R Associates each have eight rankings by its lawyers.
Bharucha & Partners managing partner MP Bharucha, Saikrishna & Associates managing partner Saikrishna Rajagopal, and senior advocates Fali Nariman and Harish Salve are the other stars. Salve is the only individual with two star rankings in India – his previously earned star in the disputes space and now in tax.
The star – Chambers’ highest possible ranking – is given to individuals with “exceptional recommendations in their field”, according to its internal criteria.
Methodology
According to information supplied by the directory, Chambers’ lawyer rankings are not paid for but require law firms to submit details of the work done with client references, which are vetted by London-based researchers with clients and other lawyers. Lawyers are then ranked by Chambers on the basis of “legal knowledge and experience, ability, effectiveness, and client-service” in addition to the departments’ “strength and depth”.
Each lawyer included in the guide is allocated a rank between one and six, in addition to the “elder statesman” and “star” ranks.
Photo by Darren Kirby
Comments
In anyways the legal directory has been published and has been released today, post which the awards also would be announced.
I am assuming the above may have been already done now so ties in well too
Best known in the sphere of capital markets, this full-service firm continues to punch well above its weight on complex, high-value transactions. Client sources single out the high quality of the firm's advice and the international expertise of its practitioners as key strengths. The practice has had a successful year advising on major IPOs and QIPs; it represented the joint bookrunners Morgan Stanley, HSBC, JM Financial and CLSA on a INR20 billion QIP by IndusInd Bank. The firm is also gaining an increasingly prominent reputation in other transactional areas of practice, particularly M&A and private equity.
India National Law Firm of the Year - AZB & Partners
Now entering its second decade of practice, AZB is one of the premier commercial law firms in the country. It has continued to expand in recent years, putting particular resources into its competition law group. It is representing Lafarge India in an appeal before the Competition Appellate Tribunal in response to allegations of cartel activity in the cement trade. Aside from competition, banking and M&A remain the firm's most-admired practices. Its active year has included mandates such as advising Tata Sons on its entry into Air Asia (India), a joint venture jointly owned with AirAsia, AirAsia Investment and Telestra Tradeplace.
http://www.chambersandpartners.com/chambers-asia-pacific-awards-for-excellence-2014-results
To clarify, that firm has no relation whatsoever to the corporate / capital markets law firm headed up by Sandip Bhagat.
Dear Kian, I completely agree with this statement - you are obviously counting multiple ranks of the same person - in which case the heading cannot be "ranked lawyers" as it is very misleading. Hope you will clarify or appropriately change the title in the table.
These figures are provided by Chambers - I'll check with them, but I suspect that the page might be from last year, so just possibly they got more ranks in the last year?
In any case, as I said, will check with them and find out.
These figures are provided by Chambers - I'll check with them, but I suspect that the page might be from last year, so just possibly they got more ranks in the last year?
In any case, as I said, will check with them and find out.[/quote]
Kian,
The comments in 6 and 6.1 are not really dealt with. You are counting the number of rankings and not the number of lawyers who are ranked. Someone ranked in banking as well as capital markets therefore counts as two rankings. Should you not be looking at the number of lawyers ranked at each firm as well as how many times they are ranked?
So yes, as you point out, this table shows how many lawyers at the firm are ranked in total. We've asked Chambers for a table with the total number of lawyers ranked and will publish this as soon as we receive this.
Both figures will probably be along similar lines, though they will illustrate different facets of a firm's bench strength and should therefore be interesting.
The data initially received erroneously stated that the rankings counted the number of lawyers ranked at each firm. In fact, the number in the rankings reflects how many rankings the firm has in different practice areas, with individual lawyers potentially being able to be ranked in more than one area.
The error is regretted and is being corrected.
As for Samvad, a total of six partners were ranked in 11 areas:
Harish Narasappa: Banking & Finance, Private Equity, Technology, Media, Telecoms (TMT), Corporate M&A
Vineetha MG: Banking & Finance, Private Equity, Corporate M&A
Hatti, Poornima: Dispute Resolution
Neela Badami: Banking & Finance
Siddharth Raja: Private Equity
Ashwini Vittalachar: Corporate/M&A
Best regards,
Kian
The list we published only includes those who were ranked this year as up-and-comers, not those from previous years. Here is the full list we've now got from Chambers, including also previous up-and-comers:
Aviation:
Up and Comer: Nitrin Sarin (Sarin & Co)
Banking & Finance:
Up and Comer: Vishnu Jerome (Poovayya & Co)
Associates to watch: Neela Badami (Samvad & Partners)
Praveen Thomas (Talwar, Thakore & Associates)
Capital Markets:
Up and Comer: Bhakta Patnaik (S&R Associates)
Associate to watch: Rahul Gulati (Talwar, Thakore & Associates)
Competition/Antitrust:
o Up and Comers: Avaantika Kakkar (Khaitan & Co)
o Shweta Shroff Chopra (Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co)
Corporate/M&A:
Up and Comers: Reena Grover (Rajani, Singhania & Partners)
Anjuli Sivaramakrishnan (Kochhar & Co)
Aparna Mittal (Luthra & Luthra Law Offices)
Gaurav Desai (Platinum Partners)
Associate to watch: Ashwini Vittalachar (Samvad Partners)
Dispute Resolution:
Up and Comers: Arun Kumar (CrestLaw Partners)
Poornima Hatti (Samvad Partners)
Ajit Warrier (Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co)
Employment:
o Up and Comers: Avik Biswas (RDA Legal)
Suyash Srivastava (Luthra & Luthra Law Offices)
Associate to watch: Atul Gupta (Trilegal)
International Trade:
Up and Comer: Sanjay Notani (Economic Laws Practice)
Private Equity:
o Up and Comers: Dhanya Menon (ALMT Legal (Indian Advocates)
o Kosturi Ghosh (Trilegal)
o Tejesh Chitlangi (IC Legal)
o Vikram Raghani (J Sagar Associates)
o Associate to Watch: Adity Chaudhury (Udwadia, Udeshi and Argus Partners)
o Projects, Infrastructure & Energy:
o Associate to Watch: Aakanksha Joshi (Economic Laws Practice)
o Real Estate:
o Up and Comer: Kosturi Ghosh (Trilegal)
o Shipping:
o Up and Comer: Ashwin Shanker (The Chambers of George A. Rebello)
o Technology, Media, Telecoms (TMT):
o Up and Comer: Gowree Gokhale (Nishith Desai Associates)
yes mr/miss sour grapes. chambers is one of the most well resreached and thourough international publications
I suspect that will throw up very interesting numbers. For example, large firms such as AMSS, AZB, Luthra, etc, may have 500 lawyers each, but very wide differences between those who are ranked.
Similarly, looking at smaller firms such as Platinum, TTA and S&R and comparing them may give a different take on the story.
Completely agree. Smaller firms with bigger than expected numbers - TTA has 8 lawyers ranked, S&R has 5 lawyers ranked, Platinum has 4 lawyers ranked. This is fantastic for firms of their size.
No Rankings for Tax