Trilegal
Trilegal set up in 2000 is an Indian law firm that formerly had a "best friend" tie-up with London-international firm Allen & Overy.
A first generation firm, Trilegal was established by graduates from NLSIU; the three offices worked independently for an year and then merged into one firm making it 'Trilegal'. The main purpose was to break the glass ceiling of family firms and establish a firm which solely considered a lawyers merit. In the beginning the firm recieved some significant projects including a large World Bank funded project for Power Grid. Though the success where little compared to the challenges the founding team faced. However today Trilegal is one of the top five firms in the country.<ref> | In Conversation with Anand-Prasad, Co-founding partner of Trilegal </ref>
Best friend relationship with international firm Allen & Overy
Allen & Overy and Trilegal entered into a referral relationship in 2008.<ref> |Allen & Overy signs Indian Alliance </ref> This relationship has been extended indefinitely after having first entered into it for a limited three-year term. <ref> |Trilegal extends best friendship with firm Allen & Overy </ref>
Firms co-founding partner Anand Prasad remarked in a Bar & Bench interview<ref> |In Conversation with Anand Prasad </ref>,"It’s a very strong relationship, but not a hard relationship. I mean we are not bound to each other in a very hard fashion but the sensitivity with which we have constructed our relationship actually makes it strong in itself."
The firm has benefitted immensely in terms of acquiring international resources and gaining a perspective on managing a law firm. Trilegal hired A& O partner in 2009 to head the capital markets practice as a lockstep equity partner. <ref> |A& O partner jois Trilegal to kick off capital markets practice </ref>
Management Strategy
The firm has no managing partner nor any senior partner. The firm is managed through committees, the members of which are slected by consensus. In the event of any disagreement regarding the constitution of a committee a vote would be resorted to. The committees are appointed for different tasks in order to ensure all the partners actively contribute in the working of the firm. To supervise all the committees there is a coordination committee.
The firm follows a lock step method of profit sharing.<ref> |Promotion of partners to Equity at trilegal </ref> The firm's lockstep model is similar to that of its best friend Allen & Overy. The founding partners or others are at the top of the lockstep, called plateau partners, entitled to a share equivalent to 40equity points. The share of a partner is determined by the points that he collects, ranging from 10 to 40. eg; if a firm has a profit of Rs 10lakh and all partners together have 100points, then each point is worth Rs 10,000.
Significant Deals
- Trilegal along with Linklaters advised Vodafone along in relation to its multi-billion dollar ($11.1 billion) acquisition of a 67% stake in Hutchison Essar Ltd., a leading telecom company in India which is still one of the biggest M&A transactions in India. <ref> | Behind the Deal : Vodafone Takes Over Hutchison Whapoa's India Unit </ref>
- Trilegal’s Mumbai office advised Karnataka-based logistics and transport company VRL Logistics in a Rs. 175 crore ($33.2m) acquisition of its equity and compulsory convertible preference shares, by South-east Asia focused private equity (PE) firm New Silk Route (NSR), which was advised by S&R Associates. <ref> |Trilegal, S&R do legal logistics for $33m VRL stake by New Silk Route </ref>
- Trilegal and Link Legal have advised power producer Caparo Energy’s $ 1.28bn contract for supply of wind power projects equipment with India’s largest turbine manufacturers Suzlon India. <ref> |Trilegal, Link Legal turn record $1.3bn Caparo-Suzlon wind farms </ref>
Careers
Starting salary at Trilegal is 10.8 lakh<ref>Salary table</ref>. The recruitment figures for Trilegal in the year 2010-11 were:<ref>Legally India research</ref>.
| Name of College | Number of Studnets |
| NLIU Bhopal | 1 |
| NLSIU Bangalore | 5 |
| NUJS Kolkata | 2 |
| Nalsar Hyderabad | 1 |
| Christ University | 3 |
| GNLU | 2 |
| NLU Jodhpur | 5 |
| Amity | 1 |
| Total | 20 |
Partners
| Name | Designation | Office | Focus | Graduation year |
| Srinivas Parthasarathy | Partner | Mumbai | ||
| Nishant Parikh | Partner | Mumbai | ||
| Karan Singh | Founding Partner | Mumbai | ||
| Ajay R. | Partner | Bengaluru | ||
| Charandeep K. | Partner | Delhi | ||
| Delano F. | Partner | Delhi | ||
| Ameya K. | Partner | Mumbai | ||
| Kosturi Ghosh | Partner | Bengaluru | ||
| Anand Prasad | Founding Partner | |||
| Amit Tambe | Partner | Mumbai | ||
| Yogesh Singh | Partner | |||
| Sitiesh Mukherjee | Partner | |||
| Harsh Pais | Partner | |||
| Privacy Bill a must to strenghten Aadhar] </ref> | Founding Partner | Bangalore | ||
Offices
Delhi A-38, Kailash Colony New Delhi-110048 Tel: +91 11 41639393
Bangalore The Residency, 7th Floor, 133/1,Residency Road, Bangalore-560025 Tel: +91 80 43434699
Mumbai One Indiabulls Centre 14th Floor, Tower One, Jupiter Mills, Elphinstone Road Mumbai-400013 Tel: +91 22 40791000
Hyderabad Harmony Plaza @nd Floor, 3-6-387/C Main Road, Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad- 500 029 Tel: +91 406641 5056
Internships
Bangalore
Five star lunch free of cost and a stipend fetches the internship experience a 10/10 by a reviewer on student website Lawctopus. The timings are long and the interns are expected to finish work when assigned something urgent. A free cab and food is provided to interns if they stay the night at the office. Stipend: 2500 per week Rating:10/10 <ref> |Internship Experience at Trilegal Bangalore </ref>
Delhi
An intern is treated as an associate and not an intern in this firm remarks a fifth year student in an internship review on Lawctopus. The work is extremely organised and folders with a timeline are distributed to the interns on joining. The firm has a mentor system; the mentor helps the intern with any problems and they also go for a mentor lunch. <ref> |Insane timings, Healthy Stipends & 'More than just an intern' treatment </ref>
Stipend: 15,000 a month and for two month its 27,000 (Tax deductions) Rating: 9/10
Mumbai
The firm only likes "national law school types" and a non-nlu student does not get any work. If a student does not know something they are laughed at comments a final year student in the internship survey.
Rankings
RSG India
RSG India writes:"Founded by four National Law School graduates in 2000, Trilegal has become the exemplar of a modern, progressive and equitable new generation of Indian law firm. The firm tied-up with Allen & Overy in 2008, but the relationship is not exclusive. It is one of only two firms with a pure lockstep model in India, and clients say it has had some success building a second tier of younger partners. While its profile amongst Indian top corporates is not yet firmly established, most feel the firm is still on the rise. After three partners left to set up Phoenix Legal in 2008, clients feel its greatest challenge is to scale up in terms of size and expertise."<ref>http://rsg-india.com/indian-law-firms/profiles/trilegal RSG India profile 2010</ref>
It is ranked in the fifth position by the RSG India rankings.
Legal 500
Legal 500 writes: "Trilegal is recommended for its ‘excellent industry knowledge’. It advised Standard Chartered as lead arranger of a $7.5bn acquisition facility and a $2bn bridge facility for Bharti Airtel’s acquisition of Zain’s African telecom business. Other clients include Axis Bank and State Bank of India. Karan Singh is ‘first rate’." <ref> |Legal 500:Trilegal</ref>
Legal 500 rankings:
- Capital Markets: Tier 3
- Corporate/M&A:Tier 4
- Within Bangalore:Tier 1
- Projects & energy(Delhi):Tier 1 Mumbai: Tier 2
Chambers & Partners
Chambers & Partners ranks Karan Singh & Rahul Matthan as Band 1. It places Kosturi Ghosh in the upcoming band.
References
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