FoxMandal Little’s London office has hired UK MP Keith Vaz as a “brand ambassador”, while the firm’s similar commercial retainer with its previous London consultant and former High Court judge has ended.
Sir Gavin Lightman signed up with FoxMandal’s London office in early 2008 with an aim to assist the firm on arbitration and insolvency issues and to train lawyers in India.
FoxMandal managing partner Som Mandal confirmed that Lightman was no longer a paid consultant with the firm for several months now but that he continued to have a close relationship with the firm.
Lightman was unavailable for comment when contacted.
FoxMandal’s London office has now hired solicitor, Labour Party politician and MP for the Leicester East constituency Keith Vaz in a paid part-time role.
Mandal said: “He will be a brand ambassador and he would also play an important role in our strategies in England.”
He added that Lightman’s role had been slightly different. “[Vaz] will play more of a role in telling us what we need to do - we would listen a lot to him in strategies in England.”
“He’s a lawyer of Indian origin and we are expecting that he can add value to our office in his capacity as a lawyer and a person who has the ability to open doors for us.”
Vaz (pictured) is a well-known and outspoken Labour Party politician who has often enjoyed the media spotlight throughout his career but has also been involved in a number of controversies.
Vaz’s office confirmed the existence of a retainer with FoxMandal to Legally India but declined to comment on the details.
Photo by Steve Punter
Comments
Keith, congrats.
It was due to Mr.Mandal's niceness,guidance and dynamism that they reached where they did.And when the hard times came.They ran away throwing their arms into the air.
FML will be coming back with a bang.People managing the firm have learnt their lessons and the return will be a sustainable one. No one in the legal fraternity or outside can hinder this growth. Systems have been put in place and the firm will no longer be looking at hiring persons who use the firm for their own personal selfish ends (like the persons who have deserted the firm earlier)....
The new ,fresh and young breed of associates and senior associates together with the assistance and guidance of consultants as well as good Partner will bring FoxMandal Little back to its glory days...
And for those who still hold negativity with the firm... I would suggest you focus on your own lives and careers... instead of talking about business models and cycles which none of you seem to understand. Even law firms like AZB and Luthra had serious problems with their working capital. It is just that they could organise financing at the time of the recession. FML shall re establish itself as a Phoenix rising from the flames.
Financial Management may have been faced by various firms but the reasons need to be explored and then a determination needs to be made whether the approach of FML was right or not. [...] We are lucky today to be receiving salaries but what is there to prevent the situation not repeating itself.
Terminated?? Whose services have till date been terminated. Infact if terminations of people who were not contributing had been done, maybe this day would not have come. [...] I mean its something for such partners to realise themselves. A partners role is not only to execute work but also to ensure that he gets work. I am surprised how any partner can even work with the thought that he is not even contributing his take home to the receivables of the firm.
At the end of the day, a person cannot survive on the fact that he is working, he has to be paid cos apart from ensuring that the firm is running he laos has to ensure that his personal life and his family have the money to live a life.
I am sure FML will come back with a bang, but whose pockets will get burnt in the process. The new partners hopefully have some assurance on their payments and not just for the next few months but in the long run aswell.
Hopefully the systems that have been put in place to ensure that the firm is no longer used by persons for their own personal selfish ends would apply from the top. The persons who left didnt get even their rightful dues. Have all asssociates and senior associates present and past received their balance of the last financial year or has that been written off by the firm [...].
If the payments are not made on time, it is not far that history will repeat itself for the third time.
It is obvious that people will write ‘such hurtful opinion’ (in your words) but it is a fact, you [...] can not deny this. You are proclaiming FML to be good firm, but who will decide whether a firm is a good or not. How a firm which has [not paid] its lawyers can be a good firm?
It is really strange that you are imagining that services of some partners are ‘terminated ‘and those who have left “were not even billing amounts to recover their basic salaries”. But if the Partners who have joined Luthra or opened their own firm (SRGR Law Offices) or joined ILS were not even billing enough to recover their basic salaries, then who was actually billing to pay hefty salaries to bunch of [...] layers [...]. It is strange that if they were so useless, why all the clients they were catering preferred going with them rather than sticking with the Firm and also why firms like Luthra decided to take whole of the team, if they were so useless.
Honestly, all partners who have left FML are the best lawyers in their area of practice be it Vineet, Saroj, Ravi, Rajan and FML should repent the loss suffered by it rather than expecting them to “show gratitude” to [the firm] and [the firm] can not and should not take credit of “his niceness, guidance and dynamism” for their competence and calibre of these partners.
[...]
You said that “They ran away throwing their arms into the air”, but instead I think the wrong policies of the firm, one man show, failure of FML to keep its promises, not paying to their lawyers what they have been promised, no say in the decision making, has led them to call it a quits.
No doubt FML will come back with a bang but not because of “niceness, guidance and dynamism” of [the firm] but because of its Lawyers and only if “People managing the firm have learnt their lessons”.
We will update shortly.
Best regards,
Kian
Buck up kian...we are with you..
First of all, apologies for the delay in responding, I have been out in meetings and was unable to deal with the queries properly at the time they were made.
In line with our terms and conditions we have to have a robust takedown policy of comments that people raise objections about, as Legally India is not responsible for reader comments. But as this is an anonymous forum it is also only fair that a subject of discussions has the chance of a fair reply or explanation if they feel they are being hard done by.
If a firm alleges that comments are defamatory, offensive or inappropriate we will take action in line with our T&Cs until while we investigate the basis of the claims and/or seek legal advice.
In this case we have temporarily unpublished the comments while we are liaising with the firm to hear their objections. We hope to continue being transparent about this process, as much as is reasonably possible.
We hope to resolve this as soon as possible and come to a mutually satisfactory result.
This is not a matter of being in collusion with anyone but merely one of responsible publishing and being fair to both sides of a debate.
A better way of getting your point of view across sometimes may also be to contact me directly under the strictest confidence to put across your concerns.
Best regards,
Kian
I uderstand your position, but in all fairness u should delete comment number 5 above also, because it is maligning the image of the Partners and associates who have left FML. The comment is totally absurd as no one was ever terminated by FML and those who have left FML were the best lawyers in the Industry today and left the firm purely because of financial reasons.
You should not keep such rubbish comments if you can't post replies to it because f legal constraints.
Thanks
One comment has been removed in its entirity as some of the facts it alleges are potentially contentious and not fully and finally settled yet. We will investigate further.
We hope this is a fair compromise in this case for now.
#18, I agree that comment #5 should not have stood on its own without a response. We regret any offence caused.
Best regards,
Kian