Partner friends from three national law firms set up Chennai start-up

Tuesday, 19 October 2010 By Legally India Law firms

Exclusive: Entrepreneurial ambitions have encouraged three partners from Universal Legal, Dua Associates and Paras Kuhad Associates to start a new law firm in Chennai under the banner Vichar, which in Sanskrit means idea, thought or opinion.

The firm was co-founded by Universal Legal Chennai partner Aarthi Sivanandh, Dua Associates Chennai partner Chitra Narayan and Paras Kuhad Associates Chennai head and designated partner Vinod Kumar.

Vichar Partners started operations earlier this month with a focus on dispute resolution, corporate and transactional law related areas of practice.

Sivanandh, who graduated from B R Ambedkar Government Law College and US-based Tulane Law School, commented: “We are thrilled to build a new firm for a newly relevant economy and geography.”

Narayan added: “We go back to a time, where we have worked together as friends for over a decade and the most important asset of our firm are our lawyers.”

She is an NLSIU Bangalore alumnus and LLM degree-holder from the University of Warwick with over 15 years of work experience.

Sivanandh added that it was their like-minded approach and realisation to cater to the fast-paced needs of clients which brought them together to start Vichar.

Kumar said: “We have put together a firm whose partners are a winning team of transactional and litigation professionals with varied sector interest.”

Situated in the Mylapore area of Chennai, Vichar has begun operations with four associates, an administration head and two members of support staff with plans to grow to ten or more in strength within one year.

Paras Kuhad Associates confirmed Kumar’s departure and Universal Legal managing partner Partha Mandal said he wished Sivanandh all the best. He added that Universal’s Chennai office now had a total of seven lawyers, headed by partner Kavitha Vijay.

Dua Associates was not available for comment.

Comments

Anonymous guest 19 Oct 2010, 15:28

+0 -0

GOOD LUCK..

Anonymous guest 19 Oct 2010, 17:29

When did these firms become "national". Geez.

Anonymous guest 19 Oct 2010, 18:08

Congradulations!
wishing all three of you the best.
from
DAV NURSERY SCHOOL STAFF

Anonymous guest 19 Oct 2010, 20:18

It seems it is always important to add in the news as to who is NLSIU bangalore alumnus. There are hoards of other colleges also. Either add all or remove all while describing a partner's education.

Anonymous guest 19 Oct 2010, 20:41

+1 -0

May I know why my comment has been removed? I merely pointed out what I felt was redundant use of words in the title.

Get lost, Kian. And go to hell LI. But before that answer my question, will you.

Totally disgusted reader.

kianganz 19 Oct 2010, 20:51

Your original comment stated:

"What was the need for the superfluous 'like-minded'. If three people are coming together to set up a firm, obviously they must be having some minimum common agenda. Anyway, good luck to this firm."

Fair enough, I thought, you had a point. In response to your comment we then changed the headline to "partner friends" rather than "like-minded partners". However, your comment would not have made sense to other readers without an explanation of the change so it was temporarily unpublished until I had the chance to reply properly, which unfortunately I did not have this morning.

I thought the headline change would have appeased your disgust in the meantime and shown that we took notice of your comment but I fail to see how not publishing the feedback/correction comment could in any way condemn us to hell of all places for censorship?

Best wishes,
Kian

Anonymous guest 20 Oct 2010, 01:36

OK, I see your point...Satan had posted the original comment.

Anonymous guest 20 Oct 2010, 04:09

excellent news. good luck to the new partnership. aw best!

Anonymous guest 20 Oct 2010, 05:22

Good Luck to the new firm.

Dua Associates and Paras Kuhad and Associates must be having a really bad time.

First the Paras Kuhad and Hemant Sahai demerger. Then the departure of Manish Desai to start Vidhi Partners. The Mumbai partner joining ALMT last week and now Vichar Partners.

As far as Dua goes Tatva came as a big shock and now a break away from the Chennai Office.

Anonymous guest 21 Oct 2010, 17:27

I would hope you function under a better, its better have the names of the partners rather than 'Vichaar' which sounds like a Hindi national daily.Chennai may not be up for it.

Anonymous guest 21 Oct 2010, 17:42

Vichaar seems to be an amalgamation of Vinod, Chitra and Aarthi anyway. More than the name, they will be known for the work that they do. All the best to them.

Legal Dodo

Anonymous guest 21 Oct 2010, 18:39

@ 10: For that matter, Chennai may not be up for a lotta things to do with law firms

Anonymous guest 22 Oct 2010, 06:17

Best ofcourse to Vichaar. However Dua is too strong on fame n capability to be affected by one individual leaving, though Tatva formation had possibily dealt it a significant blow. Paras Kuhad & Associates seems to be having the natural process of organic selection and elimination with those finally forming the cream of management being the real revenue contributors alone. No significant departures there yet in terms of revenue. Universal too looks unlikely to feel bothered.

Anonymous guest 22 Oct 2010, 16:25

#13, I tend to agree with you. No one would have even known [...] about these 3 people coming together if they didn't come from their ex-firms. As a management policy, sometimes people are asked to leave, promoters are decent enough not to make a dance and song about it and wish luck to these people publicly. Having said that, life is nothing but movement - goodluck to the ex-firms, new firm and these gentlemen.

Anonymous guest 1 Nov 2010, 16:52

"The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and needs to be.For wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and a love for what is true and good.Steeped in wisdom,man passes through visible realities to those which are unseen." Of Prudence in Acting-a passage from "Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A Kempis. So these three have joined and may be acting prudently.Let us wish them good luck and their past associates.

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