Two partners set to quit Amarchand & Mangaldas

MUMBAI: Amarchand & Mangaldas and Suresh A Shroff & Co, the country’s leading corporate law firm in terms of the transactions it does and the lawyers it employs, is losing two equity partners.

Husband-and-wife pair of MP Barucha and Alka Barucha, who’ve been in the firm “ever since one can remember”, according to those associated with the firm, are on their way out to form a new entity.

Attempts at contacting either of them turned futile. Officials at Amarchand declined to comment for this article.

Though the Baruchas’ exact equity stake in Amarchand could not be confirmed, sources indicated it could be close to 15%.

The majority of the remainder is held by the Shroff family - Cyril and Vandana Shroff, who run the show in Mumbai, and Cyril’s brother and sister-in-law Shardul and Pallavi Shroff in Delhi.

According to sources, an internal mail relating to the impending exit was circulated among employees in mid-January, though no reasons were given.

However, sources said that Cyril and MP Barucha had different ideas on the management of the firm, and the way they envisaged its future.

They also indicated that MP and Alka Barucha will take one principal associate (their son Justin Barucha), 2 senior associates and 8 associates to the new entity they hope to set up following their exit from Amarchand end-March.

Amarchand & Mangaldas employs over 375 lawyers, and is the country’s largest. Therefore, the exit of a handful is not likely to shake up the organisation, though MP Barucha’s plentiful experience and expertise in high-end litigation and arbitration will be missed.

Meanwhile, Alka Barucha is known to be a wizard in corporate and financial law. “Between the two, they ran a firm within a firm,” said a source, who said only five from their team are staying back at Amarchand. It remains to be seen how many clients they take with them.

The new firm to be set up by the Baruchas could foster a “friendly partnership” with a foreign firm. Currently, foreign firms are not allowed to impart legal advice on Indian soil and confine their operations to advising on international law from offshore destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong or London. However, that has not stopped them from building relationships with Indian firms.

A case in point is Talwar Thakore & Associates, which though from a legal standpoint is an Indian firm, is considered a front for top international law firm, Linklaters LLP.

With every sector opening up to foreign investment, lawyers feel it’s only a matter of time before foreign law firms are allowed to operate directly from India.

Therefore, it makes imminent sense for overseas law firms to get that unofficial partnership going with someone like the Baruchas who have built concrete connections with Indian corporates over the years.

sanat_vallikappen@dnaindia.net