Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) is opening an office in Kolkata under former Amarchand Mangaldas partner Niloy Pyne, who left in July 2012 to practice independently.
LKS Delhi joint partner Badri Naryanan confirmed on Monday that the firm was opening in Kolkata but declined to comment further at the time of going to press.
The office is slated for opening within two weeks.
Pyne, who graduated as a lawyer from Delhi University in 1988, was a partner-in-charge at Paras Kuhad & Associates Kolkata from 2006 to 2008, at Khaitan & Partners Kolkata from 2008 to 2010 and a partner at Amarchand Kolkata from 2010 to 2012.
He said: “[We will] rely on the tremendous goodwill and expertise of the firm, in particular Mr Lakshmikumaran, in the field of taxation, and try to use the firm’s substantial expertise in other fields such as corporate, sports and intellectual property as well.”
He added that a small team was lined up to start the firm’s office, which he would aim to have an initial size of around 10 to 12 lawyers.
“For the time being, if you look at all the firms in Kolkata none of them have a strength of more than 40. So the Kolkata market for the time being should not cater to more than 20 or 30 lawyers [in a law firm], even keeping the East and the North East in mind.”
“For Kolkata, 30 is just perfect,” Pyne said about the firm’s possible size in five years.
Last year LKS opened a second office in Delhi and an office in Pune in April, hired former Bharti Enterprises general counsel Vijaya Sampath, and moved to a bigger Bangalore office in June 2012. In May 2013, it promoted litigation practice head Anil Dutt to partner, and hiked fresher base pay to Rs 7.2 lakh.
Comments
LOL. But who on earth leaves AMSS for LKS?
"I've seen the kind of opportunities that are there which are immense actually – we are looking at Kolkata as a gateway to the East, in all spheres, including real estate and a lot of mining work… I will be expanding the business in the East and heading up the arbitration efforts, including international arbitration, litigation mining, real estate, non-core corporate and everything else."
http://www.legallyindia.com/20100602913/Law-firms/amarchand-regains-a-kolkata-partner-with-niloy-pyne-leaving-khaitan-a-partners-and-lpo-behind
When are they going to start recruiting?
"...was a partner-in-charge at Paras Kuhad & Associates Kolkata from 2006 to 2008, at Khaitan & Partners Kolkata from 2008 to 2010 and a partner at Amarchand Kolkata from 2010 to 2012."
[b]The above is Mr Pyne history![/b]
[b]And this is his expectation:[/b]
He said: “[We will] [b][u]rely on the tremendous goodwill and expertise of the firm[/u][/b], [u][i]in particular Mr Lakshmikumaran[/i][/u], in the field of taxation, and try to use the firm’s substantial expertise in other fields such as corporate, sports and intellectual property as well.”
Where is his own credentials and expertise?
Being an admirer of LKS, I hope this venture takes off well.
Peace.
1. Calcutta is not a place where you run a 30 people practice. If you are looking at a tax incentive practice, u can maybe sustain a partner plus four / five people shop and that is all. Nobody in Calcutta will pay for a 30 people practice.
2. The scene on the ground in Calcutta is very base oriented. Even as the so-called gateway to the east bullshit every tom opening a shop touts out.. it is that.. bullshit. Here is the fact.. AMSS is history in cal, Khaitan rules the roost. The place is virtually run by the table lawyers in Old Court house st and the closet CA(s) coming out of the woodwork. Without them, nothing seems to work. The boutique firms are doing their best to dent the market and set up a practice. But for the pay they get from the clients (5K per document drafting), moolah is tough. The big 4s also are trying to sell the gateway to the east story and establish the tax practice there and because of their so called network and ties with audit teams (CA' - CA bhai Bhai) are making some money. Even they are struggling to sustain their business. For anybody else, good luck getting any grass on this barren field
3. I will leave a comment on the LKS practice. Gone are the days of the great LKS, Parthasarathy etc who used to give individual attention to cases. Now they appear only for select high profile cases. The new kin of LKS lawyers are bordering on irritant, appear quite slow to grasp issues at hand, write opinions which stink of bad English and grammar .. and sometimes lack knowledge about basic court procedure.. (how i know ? hmm.. I know)... The glory days of LKS, Sridharan, Parthasarathy, Sivasdassan etc are over.. No offence to any body but your new breed of lawyers suck and any boutique firm will give you a run for the money at half the price charged ......
4. So , good luck LKS on this so called venture. Money would have been wisely spent if you had invested it on mentoring your brood rather than squandering it on pipe dreams..
1. Calcutta is not a place where you run a 30 people practice. If you are looking at a tax incentive practice, u can maybe sustain a partner plus four / five people shop and that is all. Nobody in Calcutta will pay for a 30 people practice.
2. The scene on the ground in Calcutta is very base oriented. Even as the so-called gateway to the east bullshit every tom opening a shop touts out.. it is that.. bullshit. Here is the fact.. AMSS is history in cal, Khaitan rules the roost. The place is virtually run by the table lawyers in Old Court house st and the closet CA(s) coming out of the woodwork. Without them, nothing seems to work. The boutique firms are doing their best to dent the market and set up a practice. But for the pay they get from the clients (5K per document drafting), moolah is tough. The big 4s also are trying to sell the gateway to the east story and establish the tax practice there and because of their so called network and ties with audit teams (CA' - CA bhai Bhai) are making some money. Even they are struggling to sustain their business. For anybody else, good luck getting any grass on this barren field
3. I will leave a comment on the LKS practice. Gone are the days of the great LKS, Parthasarathy etc who used to give individual attention to cases. Now they appear only for select high profile cases. The new kin of LKS lawyers are bordering on irritant, appear quite slow to grasp issues at hand, write opinions which stink of bad English and grammar .. and sometimes lack knowledge about basic court procedure.. (how i know ? hmm.. I know)... The glory days of LKS, Sridharan, Parthasarathy, Sivasdassan etc are over.. No offence to any body but your new breed of lawyers suck and any boutique firm will give you a run for the money at half the price charged ......
4. So , good luck LKS on this so called venture. Money would have been wisely spent if you had invested it on mentoring your brood rather than squandering it on pipe dreams..[/quote]
I agree completely, the only time KCo has been given a run for its money in Kolkata was when Krishnava (initially at AMSS and then at Argus) decided to do so. With Krishnava recently having relocated to Mumbai, KCo has very little to content with in the city. AMSS with its Partner, Corp head and RE head are nothing to contend with. The battle LKS will have to fight will be with Argus, if at all. Doubt Krishnava will relent easily on home turf.
1. Calcutta is not a place where you run a 30 people practice. If you are looking at a tax incentive practice, u can maybe sustain a partner plus four / five people shop and that is all. Nobody in Calcutta will pay for a 30 people practice.
2. The scene on the ground in Calcutta is very base oriented. Even as the so-called gateway to the east bullshit every tom opening a shop touts out.. it is that.. bullshit. Here is the fact.. AMSS is history in cal, Khaitan rules the roost. The place is virtually run by the table lawyers in Old Court house st and the closet CA(s) coming out of the woodwork. Without them, nothing seems to work. The boutique firms are doing their best to dent the market and set up a practice. But for the pay they get from the clients (5K per document drafting), moolah is tough. The big 4s also are trying to sell the gateway to the east story and establish the tax practice there and because of their so called network and ties with audit teams (CA' - CA bhai Bhai) are making some money. Even they are struggling to sustain their business. For anybody else, good luck getting any grass on this barren field
3. I will leave a comment on the LKS practice. Gone are the days of the great LKS, Parthasarathy etc who used to give individual attention to cases. Now they appear only for select high profile cases. The new kin of LKS lawyers are bordering on irritant, appear quite slow to grasp issues at hand, write opinions which stink of bad English and grammar .. and sometimes lack knowledge about basic court procedure.. (how i know ? hmm.. I know)... The glory days of LKS, Sridharan, Parthasarathy, Sivasdassan etc are over.. No offence to any body but your new breed of lawyers suck and any boutique firm will give you a run for the money at half the price charged ......
4. So , good luck LKS on this so called venture. Money would have been wisely spent if you had invested it on mentoring your brood rather than squandering it on pipe dreams..[/quote]
I agree completely, the only time KCo has been given a run for its money in Kolkata was when Krishnava (initially at AMSS and then at Argus) decided to do so. With Krishnava recently having relocated to Mumbai, KCo has very little to content with in the city. AMSS with its Partner, Corp head and RE head are nothing to contend with. The battle LKS will have to fight will be with Argus, if at all. Doubt Krishnava will relent easily on home turf.[/quote]
Are you Krishnava? Whats with all the praise for Krishnava? Non-entity in Cal. Had to relocate to Mumbai. If Argus was so great in Cal, then they wouldn't have to move to Mumbai. Also, wouldn't have to tie up with Udwadia, since couldn't survive on its own
We already know this is a family run unit. Sounds like the ropes are being handed over completely now!
Kian, any news on this?