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People Moves (Jan-April 13)

Roundup The first four months of this year has seen a significant number of lateral shifts amongst the countrys bigger law firms, while breakaway firms have either dissolved or merged with other startups. At the same time, this period has also seen a number of Partner promotions, indicating a possible rise in market sentiment. Of course, the spate of promotions could also be a move towards stemming attrition, something that seems to be plaguing quite a few law firms. Lateral Shifts When it comes to lateral shifts, the largest movement has been at Economic Laws Practice, where 14 lawyers, including Partners Tarun Gulati, Sanjay Notani, and Associate Partner Neil Hildrith have shifted to PDS Legal. Nishith Desai saw two of its senior lawyers; Sidharth Shah and Bijal Ajinkya leave the firm to join Khaitan & Co. Seth Dua Associates got three new partners and saw exit of one; Salman Waris from HSA Advocates, Gautam Chopra from Vaish Associates and Competition Law expert VK Aggarwal joined Seth Dua while Rahul Goel left to join Dhir & Dhir. Other Partner shifts include Desai Diwanjis Amit Khansaheb moving to BMR Legal, JSAs Abeezar E Faizullabhoy shifting to a power projects company, Sidanth Rajgopal moving from Clasis Law to Clyde & Co where he has been made an Equity Partner and Harry Chawla, Senior Partner and member of the management committee at Amarchand Mangaldas moving to Kochhar & Co.

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Retirement J. Sagar Associates saw the retirement of its founding partner, a decision that was made 10 years back. Jyoti has retired as an equity partner of his firm setting the stage for Berjis Desai. Jyoti will now be associated with the firm as a Chairman in a mentoring role. Wadia Ghandy also saw the departure of one of their Senior Partners, Djena Sunavala who left after working at the firm for 23 years. Promotions J. Sagar Associates, which saw the departure of their founder Jyoti Sagar earlier this year, has announced bumper promotions promoting 18 of its Senior Associates to the post of Retained Partner, while also making two of its Retained Partners (Vishnu Sudarsan and Varghese Thomas) Equity Partner Elect. Khaitan & Co has also seen some changes at the top, bringing in Morgan Stanleys Sudhir Bassi as the firms new Executive Director. Khaitan & Co also promoted 5 Principal Associates to Associate Partnership. In second place is Desai & Diwanji that saw 10 Associate Partners being promoted to Partnership. Anand and Anand has also seen a rise in the number of Partners, with 6 new partner promotions. New firms/Merger/Dissolution The initial months saw the establishment of V Chambers of Law by ex-AZB Partner, Vineetha MG in January this year. However a few weeks later, Vineetha merged her firm with Narasappa Dorawamy & Raja to form a new law firm, Samvad. This time period also saw the integration of practices of both Link Legal and India Law Services to form Link Legal - India Law Services.

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 The first two months of this year saw the last steps in the dissolution of Alliance Legal, a firm co-founded by Vishnu Jerome, Ravi Kumar and Priyanka Roy. While Jerome has opened up the Mumbai office of Poovayya & Co, Kumar has returned to Amarchand Mangaldas as Senior Consultant. Roy, on the other hand, has joined the Mumbai office of Indus Law where she is an Equity Partner. In London, Clasis Law co-founder Shalini Agarwal left the firm and has established a legal consultancy firm In Se Legal International Firms With respect to international law firms, Allen & Overy promoted Counsel Gautam Narasimhan at the firms Singapore office, to Partnership, and Linklaters made its Manaing Associate Savi Hebbur, a Partner at the London office in the last week of April.

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Firm
Anand and Anand Dhruv Anand Shrawan Chopra Madhu Rewari Revanta Mathur Sandhya Singh Swati Sharma Amarchand Mangaldas

Person

Movement
Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership

Ravi Kumar (Founding Partner, Alliance Legal) Harry Chawla (Equity Partner)

Joins as Senior Consultant/Principal Associate Joins Kochhar & Co as Senior Partner & Managing

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Firm
Allen & Overy

Person
Gautam Narasimhan (Counsel) Preeti Balwani (Senior Associate)

Movement
Partner, Mumbai Promoted to Partnership in Singapore office Leaves to join KS Partners as Salaried Partner

ALMT Legal

Archer & Angel BMR Legal

Bidyut Tamuly Amit Khansaheb

Promoted to Partnership Joins as Partner from Desai Diwanji Resigns to establish consultancy firm In Se Legal Leaves to join Clyde & Co as Equity Partner

Clasis Law

Shalini Agarwal (Founding Partner) Sidanth Rajagopal (Partner)

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Firm
Clyde & Co

Person
Sidanth Rajagopal (Partner) Amit Khansaheb (Partner) Aslam Ahmed (Associate Partner) Madhavan Srivatsan (Associate Partner) Rachna Jain (Associate Partner) Raghav Mathur (Associate Partner) Joebin Devassy (Associate Partner) Shyam Pandya (Associate Partner) Siddharth Mody (Associate Partner)

Movement
Joins as Equity Partner from Clasis Law

Desai & Diwanji

Leaves to join BMR Legal as a Partner Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership

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Firm

Person
Ketaki Gor Mehta (Associate Partner) Natasha Treasurywala (Associate Partner) Aneesh Gupte (Associate Partner)

Movement
Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Partnership

Dhir & Dhir Associates

Rahul Goel Anu Monga

Joins as Partner from Seth Dua Joins from Seth Dua

Economic Laws Practice

Tarun Gulati (Partner) Sanjay Notani (Partner) Neil Hildrith (Associate Partner) Team of 11 lawyers

Leaves to join PDS Legal Leaves to join PDS Legal Leaves to join PDS Legal Leaves to join PDS Legal

Fladgate LLP

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Firm
HSA Advocates

Person
Mythily Katsaris (India Desk)

Movement
Promoted to Partnership

Salman Waris (Partner) Harvinder Singh (Partner Designate) Mohit D. Ram Rajesh Pathania

Leaves to join Seth Dua Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Associate Partner Promoted to Associate Partner

Indus Law In Se Legal

Priyanka Roy (Co-founder of Alliance Legal) Shalini Agarwal

Joins as Equity Partner New consultancy firm established

J. Sagar Associates Jyoti Sagar (Founding and Equity Partner) Retires; to act as Chairman

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Firm

Person
Abeezar E Faizullabhoy (Equity Partner) Vishnu Sudarsan (Retained Partner) Varghese Thomas (Retained Partner) Nandini Mehta (Partner at Vidhii Partners) Apoorva Misra (Senior Associate) Jyotika Khilnani Guha (Senior Associate) Mayank Mishra (Senior Associate) Nitin Kala (Senior Associate) Poonam Verma (Senior Associate) Akshay Nagpal (Senior Associate)

Movement
Leaves to join Power Projects Company Promoted to Equity Partner Elect Promoted to Equity Partner Elect Joins as Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner

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Firm

Person
Minu Dwivedi (Senior Associate) Nitesh Bhasin (Senior Associate) Pallavi Puri (Senior Associate) Mithun Thanks (Senior Associate) Jamshed Bhumgara (Senior Associate) Kavita Agarwal (Senior Associate) Rajesh Pal (Senior Associate) Arjun Perikal (Senior Associate) Probir Roy (Senior Associate) Seema Sukumar (Senior Associate) Malini Raju (Senior Associate)

Movement
Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner

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Firm

Person

Movement
Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner Promoted to Retained Partner

Juris Corp Hufriz Wadia Joins as Partner (Chennai office) from Al Tamimi & Company Leaves to join Majmudar & Partners as Associate

Fraser M Alexander (Of Counsel)

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Firm
KS Partners Preeti Balwani

Person

Movement
Partner

Joins as Salaried Partner from ALMT Khaitan & Co Joyjyoti Misra (Principal Associates) Prateek Kumar (Principal Associates) Susmit Pushar (Principal Associates) Adheesh Nargolkar (Principal Associates) Niren Patel (Principal Associates) Siddarth Shah Bijal Ajinkya Promoted to Associate Partner Promoted to Associate Partner Joins as Corporate and Promoted to Associate Partner Promoted to Associate Partner Promoted to Associate Partner

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Firm
Sudhir Basi

Person

Movement
Funds Partner from Nishith Desai Joins as Tax and Funds Partner from Nishith Desai Joins as Executive Director from Morgan Stanley

Kochhar & Co

Bidan Chandran (Partner) Harry Chawla

Leaves to join PDS Associates as Partner Joins as Partner from Amarchand Mangaldas Promoted to Partnership Promoted to Associate Partner Promoted to Associate

Linklaters Lexport

Savi Hebbur (Managing Associate) Mukesh Yadav (Senior Associate) Mukul Chandra (Senior Associate)

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Firm
Majmudar & Partners

Person

Movement
Partner

Fraser M Alexander

Joins as Associate Partner from Juris Corp

M.V.Kini & Co Tavinder Sidhu (Principal Associate) Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP Narasappa Dorasamy & Raja (now Samvad) Promoted to Partnership

Sanjeet Malik (Of Counsel) in Hong Kong office

Leaves firm

Rohan George NDR and V Chambers of Law merge to set up Samvad

Joins as Partner from RKG Associates

Nishith Desai Associates

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Firm

Person
Siddarth Shah (Funds Co-Head) Bijal Ajinkya (Tax Co-Head)

Movement
Leaves to join Khaitan & Co as a Partner Leaves to join Khaitan & Co as a Partner Moves to Rainmaker as CEO Joins as Partner from ELP Joins as Partner from ELP Joins from ELP

Pangea3 PDS Legal

Antony Alex (Managing Director)

Tarun Gulati Sanjay Notani Neil Hildrith PDS Associates Bidan Chandran Poovayya & Co Vishnu Jerome (Co-founder at Alliance Legal)

Leaves Kochhar & Co to join as Partner Joins as Partner to open

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Firm
Rainmaker Antony Alex

Person

Movement
Mumbai Office Joins as CEO from Pangea3 Moves to post of Founder and Chief Strategist Joins Seth Dua as Partner Leaves HSA Advocates to join as Partner Joins as Partner from Vaish Associates Leaves to join Dhir & Dhir Associates Leaves to join Dhir & Dhir Associates New firm established, merges to form Samvad

Nikhil Chandra (CEO) Seth Dua Associates VK Aggarwal (ex-officer CET, CGIT) Salman Waris (Partner, HSA Advocates) joins as Partner Gautam Chopra Rahul Goel (Partner) Anu Monga (Senior Asociate) V Chambers of Law Vineetha MG

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Firm
Vaish Advocates

Person
Gautam Chopra (Principal Associate)

Movement
Leaves to join Seth Dua Associates Leaves to join JSA as Retained Partner Resigns

Vidhii Partners

Nandini Mehta (Partner)

Wadia Ghandy

Djena Sunawala (Senior Partner)

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