Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has promoted 10 to salaried partner level, as first reported Bar & Bench.

Managing partner Cyril Shroff said in a press release: “While COVID-19 continues to create uncertainties and challenges, we remain focused on taking steps to navigate its impact while looking at the future and promoting partners is an important part of this.”

While 60% of the new promotees are women, the promotions this time have been announced around two months later and the total number is nearly half the number that had been promoted in May 2019, when 19 were elevated, reflecting CAM’s so-far hyper-cautious outlook towards the ballooning Covid-19 crisis.

Albeit in June projecting “business as usual” in its other fee-earner promotions, CAM has taken aggressive steps to shore up its bottom line, such as deferring fresher start dates until 2021 and cuts-cum-deferrals of fee-earner and partner retainers.

In general corporate + employment:

• Abe Abraham: employment (Bengaluru), ILS Pune (2001)
• Aditi Singhvi: general corporate (Mumbai), NLU Jodhpur (2011)
• Mudit Shah: general corporate/real estate (Ahmedabad), GNLU Gandhinagar (2009)
• S Harish: general corporate (Bengaluru), GNLU Gandhinagar (2011)

In banking, finance and/or projects:

• Abhishek Sridhar: banking and finance (Mumbai), Nalsar Hyderabad (2008)
• Aditi Misra: projects and project finance (New Delhi), ILS Pune (2011)
• Mallika Chopra: banking and finance (Mumbai), Symbiosis (2008)
• Shukti Trivedi: banking and finance (Mumbai), NLIU Bhopal (2006)

In dispute resolution:

• Radhika Dubey: disputes (New Delhi), IP University (2007)
• Shikha Tandon: disputes (New Delhi), Amity Law School (2006)

The firm has also promoted Mumbai-based financial regulatory lawyer Gazal Rawal to partner designate, which is a pre-salaried partner rung in CAM’s career progression.

Practice focus

The firm has promoted four each within the wider corporate and finance umbrellas, and two in dispute resolution.

In a press release, the firm’s chair of finance, projects & insolvency, L Viswanathan, said that the promotions would “foster a culture of performance enabled growth”, adding: “The finance practice at CAM continues to grow at a steady pace and is uniquely positioned in the market. The additions to the banking and finance and projects streams will help maintain and strengthen CAM’s market leading position in these areas.”

Reeba Chacko, national head of corporate, said in the release: “As a firm, we have considered a very high individual performance threshold in addition to our practice requirements such as a special sector or product focus over and above the broad-based practice of each of them.”

Mumbai saw four new partners, followed by three in Delhi, two in Bengaluru and one in its Ahmedabad office.

Does size matter?

These promotions grow Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas partnership to 141, just shy of Khaitan & Co’s 153 partners following its massive round of 16 salaried partner promotions earlier this month.

While largest number of partners in an Indian law firm is a somewhat arbitrary metric (though a virtual prize that firms have understandably long publicised and tried to aim for), if the roles had been reversed and Khaitan had promoted nine to partner and CAM 16, CAM would now have the largest number of partners again.

Khaitan’s total number of partners, despite promoting a greater number than last year, only increased by one from 152, as at the promotion round in April 2019, suggesting significant attrition or departures at Khaitan over the last 12 months.

CAM’s partnership tally in May 2019 stood at 132.

CAM senior partner Vandana Shroff said in the press release: “I am also very proud to see an increasing number of women partners in the partnership.”

Law schools

The spread between alma mater law schools, for those readers interested, is fairly evenly split in this promotion round at CAM, with no law schools except GNLU Gandhinagar and ILS Pune having produced more than one partners.

Other LLB colleges are NLU Jodhpur, Nalsar Hyderabad, SLS Pune, NLIU Bhopal and IP University and Amity Law School.