Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) Delhi disputes principal associate Omar Ahmad is joining Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) as a salaried partner with a team of three associates.

Ahmad is a 2010 graduate of Symbiosis International University who had started his career with what-was-then Amarchand Mangaldas.

He specialises in commercial litigation, telecom disputes and international arbitration, according to his Linked-in profile.

We have reached out to both SAM and CAM for comment.

Compared to SAM’s formidable and long-standing Delhi litigation practice - headed by co-managing and senior partner Pallavi Shroff - disputes has been a tough nut for CAM to crack in Delhi, especially with senior partner and litigator Percy Billimoria having announced his departure from the firm in May.

In its latest partnership promotions, Shardul Amarchand promoted one in its Delhi disputes practice to salaried partner - Surjendu Sankar Das - and two Delhi disputes lawyers to equity partner: Anirudh Das and Manu Nair.

CAM-SAM war: Gloves now fully off

These hires follow a tumultuous period of poachings between the competing firms, after an initial period of non-competition for talent until April 2016, following the Amarchand Mangaldas break-up into SAM and CAM.

Perhaps in a bid to gain an edge in the increasing competition for talent, we had reported earlier this week that SAM has instituted a new HR policy, under which any SAM leavers in the next seven months would have to repay the firm three months’ of their (increased) pay.

SAM’s senior corporate partner Akila Agrawal has recently joined CAM in Delhi, with one of her team’s principal associates Mukul Sharma also joining as partner.

In June of this year, CAM Delhi corporate partner Nivedita Tiwari moved to SAM.

And in October 2017, CAM capital markets partner Nikhil Naredi joined Shardul Amarchand after a whopping 6 months of gardening leave, having given notice shortly before SAM Mumbai corporate partner Gaurav Singhi resigned from SAM to CAM in May 2017.

In October 2016, SAM had raided CAM’s Chennai head Dorothy Thomas with her team.