Clasis Law
Following the break-up between Clyde & Co and Clasis Law, which we had first reported on 22 March, UK-international firm Clydes has now tied up with former Clasis partner Sumeet Lall’s new firm CSL Chambers, according to sources.
Sumeet Lall, who is the longest-surviving lateral partner hire at Clasis Law which under managing partner Vineet Aneja has lost its partnership several times over in the last years, has resigned, according to authoritative sources.
The nearly 7-year-old best friendship between Clyde & Co and Clasis Law is on the rocks, and due to not continue after 31 March of this year, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the development.
The Indian capital markets have a new international king, at least going by law firms and volumes of initial public offerings (IPO), and it’s Sidley Austin, in a league table dominated by a completely new list of firm names after a swathe of some big-name partner moves in the past years.
Clasis Law's IP team headed by partner Rahul Beruar has left to set up Beruar & Beruar, with its head office in Delhi's Defence Colony.
In the latest bi-annual rankings compiled by consultancy RSG India, AZB & Partners has topped the table ahead of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), which had topped the table in 2015 when still united in one firm as Amarchand Mangaldas before their break-up (see full table below).
Clyde & Co’s Indian best friend Clasis Law associate partners Rahul Beruar (heading IP law at the firm, having joined from Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan in 2015, after its previous IP head was poached by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas) and Vikram Bhargava (corporate and regulatory) have been promoted to partner level, reported Bar & Bench.
Justice Gautam Patel, who had written a hugely sarcastic, hard-hitting and viral order targeting adjournment culture, has passed a new order expressing his “personal regret” if any embarrassment was caused the the junior counsel appearing before him, clarifying that it should have been directed at those who given the instructions to seek an adjournment.
After his Indigo-GoAir order went viral last year, Bombay high court Justice Gautam Patel has delivered another zinger, with this one dripping with even more sarcasm and innuendo, scheduling the next hearing date for 2020 (actually, for late 2020, more than three-and-a-half years from now).
Clasis Law’s UK-headquartered best friend Clyde & Co has sued the Indian arm of integrated telecom infrastructure company Nu Tek, in the Delhi high court, for non-payment of Rs 2.1 crore ($315055) of the law firm’s dues.
Clasis Law added independent litigator Jaideep Singh as an associate partner in its Delhi office in April. Singh specialises in disputes.
After having lost practically its entire Mumbai office though having hired two others, two more Clasis Law partners have quit, reported Bar & Bench:
Clasis Law’s Indirect Tax practice Head Manoj Mishra along with the firm’s Infra and Energy Head Jatinder Cheema have recently resigned from the firm.
Clasis Mumbai breakaway Orbit Law Offices has opened an Andhra Pradesh office – its third national office since starting up in October 2014.
The Andhra office is in the state’s new capital, Vijaywada, and will be run by the firm’s lawyers Surya Mohan Yerramilli, Venkata Muralidhar Kandukuri and Bharadwajam Ponnada.
Former Clasis Mumbai projects partners Ishtiaq Ali and Damodara Rao started up Orbit after breaking away from Clasis with their team. On starting up Orbit had five partners and 10 other lawyers, as reported by Legally India.
Clasis Law Mumbai partner and shipping and international trade head Harsh Pratap has left the firm, shortly after the exit of four other partners of the firm in Mumbai and London, including three co-founding partners.
Clasis Law project finance partners Ishtiaq Ali and Damodara Rao have left to start their own firm, which is understood to be a five-partner, 10-lawyer start-up law firm.