Law firms J Sagar Associates (JSA), Khaitan & Co, Trilegal, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) and AZB & Partners (roughly in that order) were consistently ranked as the top 5 of big law firms in terms of “culture”, “leadership” and “rewards & recognition”, “satisfaction” and “pride”, according to a survey by legal recruitment and management consultant Vahura.
In the metric of work-life balance, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas came out above AZB, and in some of the categories, such as rewards & recognition, Trilegal was ahead of Khaitan, and AZB just ahead of CAM.
In a combined list of top 3, JSA apparently came out on top, with 73% of respondents from JSA having “responded positively to questions pertaining to respect and value”.
Khaitan & Co came second in the overall combined ranking, and Trilegal came third, out of firms with more than 200 professionals.
Amongst firms with fewer than 200 professionals, the winners were Keystone Partners, Bathiya Legal and PDS Legal.
Amongst boutique law firms, according to the survey, GameChanger Law Advisors came first, followed by Law NK and Obhan & Associates.
Full results in the 200+ size category:
| Culture | Firm leadership | Rewards & recognition | Worklife balance | Satisfaction | Pride |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JSA | JSA | JSA | JSA | JSA | JSA |
| Khaitan | Khaitan | Trilegal | Khaitan | Khaitan | Khaitan |
| Trilegal | Trilegal | Khaitan | Trilegal | Trilegal | Trilegal |
| CAM | CAM | AZB | SAM | CAM | CAM |
| AZB | AZB | CAM | CAM | AZB | AZB |
Full results in firms with fewer than 200 professionals:
| Culture | Firm leadership | Rewards & recognition | Worklife balance | Satisfaction | Pride |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keystone | Bathiya | Keystone | Keystone | Bathiya | Keystone |
| Bathiya | Keystone | S&R Associates | PDS | Keystone | Poovayya & Co |
| PDS | PDS | PDS | Bathiya | Nishith Desai | Bathiya |
| BTG Legal | BTG Legal | DMD Advocates | BTG | PDS | PDS |
| Samvad Partners | Samvad Partners | Bathiya | Samvad | Poovayya & Co | Nishith Desai |
Methodology
According to the survey, more than 1,200 respondents participated from 140 law firms, approached directly and via a social media outreach campaign.
Law firm managing partners were also asked to share the survey internally in the firm.
Firms were only ranked if more than 35% of a firm’s professionals participated, resulting in a shortlist of 35 firms.
The survey report did not state the names of firms that did not make the cut into the top 6 in each category.
56% of respondents were associates, 26% were senior associates, 11% were counsel and 9% were partner, with the 73% based in Delhi and Mumbai and 15% in Bangalore.
Rival partner popularity contest results:
The survey also “curated The Lawyers Choice Rankings which is purely based on top 3 preferences of lawyers with respect to firms and partners in their corresponding practice areas”, “given by lawyers specifically in relation to other firms, and not their own”.
The top law firm partners (in alphabetical order) chosen in each practice area were:
| Corporate | Ashwath Rau (AZB) | Cyril Shroff (CAM) | Zia Mody (AZB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Litigation | Mahesh Agarwal (Agarwal Law Associates) | Pallavi Shroff (SAM) | Sanjeev Kapoor (Khaitan) |
| IP | Pravin Anand and Safir Anand (Anand and Anand) | Saikrishna Rajagopal (Saikrishna & Associates). | |
| Finance | Aashit Shah (JSA) | Dina Wadia (JSA) | Sonali Mahapatra (Talwar Thakore & Associates) |
| Real Estate | Dhaval Vussonji (Dhaval Vussonji & Associates) | Dhawal Mehta (Wadia Ghandy) | Sajit Suvarna (DSK Legal) |
| Tax | Deepak Chopra (AZB) | Tarun Gulati (PDS) | V Lakshmikumaran (LKS) |
| Projects | Akshay Jaitly (Trilegal) | Jatin Aneja (SAM) | L Viswanathan (CAM) |
| Competition | Nisha Kaur Uberoi (Trilegal) | Pallavi Shroff (SAM) | Samir Gandhi (AZB) |
| Capital markets | Manan Lahoty (L&L Partners) | Prashant Gupta (SAM) | Yash Ashar (CAM) |
Top “upcoming law firm partners”, were voted to be:
| Corporate | Kunal Chandra (Trilegal) | Shishir Vayttaden (CAM) | Yogesh Singh (Trilegal) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Litigation | Anuj Berry (SAM) | Anupama Hebbar (Keystone Partners) | Dhruv Dewan (SAM) |
| IP | Anusuya Nigam (Singh and Singh) | Aparna Kareer (Obhan & Associates) | Priyanka Khimani (Anand and Anand & Khimani) |
| Finance | Anjana Potti (JSA) | Kannan Rahul (Trilegal) | Roxanne Anderson (AZB) |
| Real Estate | Denzil Arambhan (Wadia Ghandy) | Malini Raju (JSA) | Sagar Kadam (DSK) |
| Tax | L Badri Narayan (LKS) | Rajesh Simhan (NDA) | Sachit Jolly (DMD Advocates) |
| Projects | Ajay Sawhney (CAM) | Avirup Nag (IndusLaw) | Neeraj Menon (Trilegal) |
| Competition | Abir Roy (Seetharaman & Associates) | Ravisekhar Nair (ELP) | Shweta Shroff Chopra (SAM) |
| Capital markets | Abhimanyu Bhattacharya (Khaitan) | Aditya Cheriyan (Khaitan) | Varoon Chandra (AZB) |
The PDF survey results (10MB) are available here, via Vahura.
Comments
Agree that it's slightly hard to interpret and draw conclusions from these rankings, though I'd highly doubt they are paid for.
It's also hard to extrapolate whether there were enough data points for firms such as Luthra, or whether they just came consistently 6th or lower amongst the big firms...
The survey says "more than 1200 lawyers" (so let's just say 1200 lawyers) were surveyed accros 140 law firms. So simple division would mean 8.5 lawyers per firm. Granted that that figure will have to be adjusted as you have to assume that more lawyers from bigger firms would have participated. So even you double (or triple) that, it's only 17 (or 25.5) lawyers per firm. Hardly a representative demographic!
Likewise, you also have to reduce 8.5 to a smaller number in case of smaller firms. Would further weaken the accuracy of representation.
I have seen her work very closely-.a rainmaker, knows how to keep both the regulator and her clients happy..Nisha it's time that you tell us all- how do you do it? Not sure if this comment will reach you but I really wanted you to know that there is a lot of love and respect for you out there.
PS : I had tears when I read this message ..
Bathiya Legal
First of all, isn't there a conflict of interest? Actually, Maybe not! CAM (once their biggest client) has black listed them! This is what happens when you poach from the firm that's your client. Now they are in bed with AZB (not sure how long that will last) and trying hard for SAM ( No points for guessing who poached Bandhakavi!!! Watch out SSS, PSS! Seems in the above 200 category, JSA and Trilegal are the only firms who are still instructing Vahura!
Also, what credible work has Vahura done in the private practice space? Apart from making fancy compensation reports which has become a gimmick for recruitment firms trying to enter the legal market by hiring 'star recruiters' - VITO India, Options Recruitment etc.
Everyone knows Vahura has done consulting assignments for many of the below 200 and boutique firms mentioned in the report! So how can anything in this report be objective?!
Anyway - One thing this report clearly establishes is that rate your client top in all categories to compensate for failures on the recruitment piece!
This is a race to the bottom between League Legal Consulting (also known for their ethical values - pun intended), Legal Era and IDeX awards (paid awards) and Vahura (paid reports and failed recruitment).
Pallavi in top 3 competition partners with Uberoi and Gandhi while Shweta is upcoming with Abir and Ravi. Set the cat among the pigeons.
l however find what is more inspiring is that Abir da works in a start up and doesnt have a Corp team to back him and feed him as far as merger control work is concerned nor has a firm brand to back up. Needless to say I am biased towards Abir da.
So most definitely this survey intended to evoke the come here sweety call for Vahura
Having said this, I've found AZB lawyers to be consistently good. The other Tier 1 firms can be very partner dependant.
But what do I know, I like the genteel culture of old school Bombay firms.
As regards the rest, CAM and KCO are also decent places to work but can’t say the same about AZB (ask Ashwath’s people who moved from CaM to AZB) and Trilegal (no gender equality and no work-life balance)!
It's like who is the best person amongst Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and Stalin. Kuch abhi award dedoge. Next you will give awards to most honest businesses to Reliance, Adani and Robert Vadra or better yet - who is more secular RSS, BJP or Bajrang Dal.
#hypocrite
#myfirmisnumber1