lockstep

“I’m not nervous about it,” claims Jyoti Sagar about surrendering the last 7-odd per cent of equity he holds in the firm he started more than 20 years ago. “It is something I have known for 10 years, not something sudden.”

“Our model is well–known but people have carried the impression that it’s just a model but not for real. But people are trying to figure out what’s going on [now that I’m actually retiring].”

Exclusive: Trilegal, which is claimed to have been growing at 25 per cent per year, has converted into nearly a full equity partnership, created an elected management committee and a democratic model where the founding partners could theoretically be ousted by an equity partnership vote.

Legally India was candidly walked through the changes and examines the back story to the end of its best friendship with Allen & Overy (A&O), the grief lawyers can cause, one-way referrals and the inevitability of associate attrition when a firm has to run fast without godfathers.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas has promoted five new partners into the lockstep equity pool and created 11 practice heads, as part of the 2017 plan for the firm to grow to 1000-lawyers and 100 partners following the proposals from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) review.

Independence is a quality as prized by lawyers as it was celebrated by India yesterday. But as firms grow larger, they get more dependent on each of their partners while subsuming the individual into the collective.

Exclusive: Trilegal has internally promoted the first two salaried partners into its equity partner lockstep since the Phoenix Legal breakaway, with Mumbai corporate partners Nishant Parikh and Amit Tambe starting on the first rung of the firm’s 13 year lockstep.

EXCLUSIVE: Khaitan & Co has hired Symbiosis graduate Rajat Mukherjee as an “associate partner”, which is the first time a non-equity salaried partner has joined the firm under the revamped partnership structure.

Amarchand’s Delhi office celebrated its 30th birthday this month and the office’s architects Shardul and Pallavi Shroff even received a rather touching Robert Frost-inspired ode by a proud partner to heroes sung and unsung. Less joyously, this month also marked the first departure of one of the firm’s new equity partners who were taken onto the partial lockstep two years ago.

Amarchand Mangaldas equity corporate partner Himanshu Narayan has resigned the firm to join Dua Associates in Delhi.

Two thirds of lawyers think a lockstep partnership model is the correct long-term model for a law firm but only one third of equity partners share that view, according to the 2009 law firm survey by legal sector services provider Rainmaker.

Luthra & Luthra has hired an Amarchand Mangaldas senior associate, as targeting expansion in Bangalore. The firm also paid out bonuses last week and increased base salaries earlier this year but it has delayed its announced lockstep conversion process until the end of the year.

Luthra & Luthra partners have agreed to completely overhaul their management and partnership structure, which will see up to six current salaried partners enter the newly opened equity on a lockstep system.