Zia Mody
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas managing partner Pallavi Shroff is set to join India's largest e-payments brand Paytm as a director, reported Business World.
The dispute between Amarchand Mangaldas brothers would most likely result in a split of the firm into two separate entities, said an authoritative source with close knowledge of the Mumbai side of the dispute.
Economic Times looks at law firm equities and reports: Khaitan & Co, the firm of 58 partners, 300 lawyers and 101 years, retains 15 to 25 per cent of equity with the family, while at Amarchand Mangaldas (20 equity partners, 50 salaried partners, 555 lawyers, 95 years old) around 75 per cent equity is with the Shroff family, with mother Bharti Shroff holding lifetime equity, and the veto vote resting with the family.
Jyoti Sagar at JSA and Rajiv Luthra at Luthra & Luthra are the only Sagar and Luthra, respectively, at their firms. Sagar with Mumbai senior partner Berjis Desai holds under 13 per cent of equity in the 20-strong equity partnership of the 21-year-old firm. And while family is barred from joining JSA, strict observance of the rule resulting in retainers quitting if wanting to marry each other, at Luthra the bar to family is only in terms of automatic entry.
Speculation for AZB apparently goes that founding partner Zia Mody, amongst the 17 equity partners at the firm, holds 90 per cent of the firm’s equity, but she denies the rumours [ET]
Last week's episode of CNBC-TV18's The Firm sat Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee (TRAC) members YM Deosthalee and Sourav Mallik opposite AZB & Partners' Zia Mody and Amarchand Mangaldas' Cyril Shroff to discuss some of the intended and unintended consequences of the proposed drastic overhaul of India's takeover regulations.
"Law was often looked at as a marriage degree - three years in law, then you get married," recalls AZB founding partner Zia Mody about women's views of a legal career 30 years ago. Since then law firms have gradually fought the profession's gender bias, arguably more successfully in India than abroad. But there is still a long way to go.
The Ambanis yet again dominated the national headlines as the multi-billion dollar dispute between brothers Anil and Mukesh began limping through the Supreme Court.
Then, as though there was not nearly enough drama in the saga, one of the three judges discovered that his daughter was a partner at AZB Bangalore.
The Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) is hoping to widen its appeal outside of its traditional centre Delhi by strengthening local metro chapters and inducting new committee members.
SILF's Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other regional chapters will be headed by prominent local lawyers.
Former Solicitor General Goolam Vahanvati was appointed Attorney-General of India on Monday (8 June), giving AZB & Partners the second close family connection in that post.