Turmoil in legal industry in 2016

1. Turmoil in Legal Industry in 2016 Is it the end or a new beginning in Law Industry

2. Insight on article • The Indian legal services industry has never quite seen the turmoil that it has experienced in 2016. • As generations shift, institutions mature and old alliances and allegiances crumble, the question is being asked: Could it be the end of days or a new beginning? • In less than three months to date, nearly as many law firm partner-level senior lawyers have moved as in the entire 2013-14 financial year. • If it continues at the same pace—and a lot of observers are predicting that it will—the 2016-17 financial year could see 150 partners moving to rival law firms, going independent or in-house.

3. Stats on Indian Legal Industry

4. Relationships buried Since the beginning of the 2016 financial year, CAM has been gutted by AZB and Partners, which has already poached six CAM partners or senior lawyers as partners. The most shocking to the market, including to quite a few outside the legal community, was AZB’s hiring of Amarchand stalwart of nearly two decades, Ashwath Rau, and his team of three partners and more than 20 lawyers. That was followed by AZB poaching CAM’s competition head Nisha Kaur Uberoi. CAM retaliated quickly by poaching Percival Billimoria, who was practically a co-founding partner of AZB. AZB Mumbai has through the years faced consistent attrition and poaching of senior- and mid-level corporate partners such as senior partner Abhijit Joshi, who set up his own firm Veritas, as well as younger generation partners such as Vaishali Sharma, Vishnu Jerome, EssajiVahanvati, and, most recently, Shuva Mandal, who was hired into SAM’s new Mumbai office. While some of these wouldn’t have worried AZB excessively, as Mody still directly or indirectly pulls in most of the revenue, the gaps in AZB’s line-up were noticeable.

5. The innocent bystander JSA, traditionally a more gentle firm than many others when it comes to aggressive lateral hirings, has easily suffered the most out of all Big 7 firms, losing partners at a much faster rate than it has been replenishing them from outside since its founder JyotiSagar retired in early 2013. While JSA lost six partners in 2014, by the time the Shroff war kicked off in 2015, SAM took five partners out of JSA led by corporate rainmaker AkshayChudasama, and in early 2016, CAM hired two partners from the team of the retiring Sundaresan. JSA is at a delicate juncture right now with newly elected management facing the retirement of senior partner Berjis Desai in 2017, and consistent rumblings of low-level departures on the horizon. That said, its egalitarian model of partnership should act as a buffer of sorts against anything too cataclysmic, if its internal democracy finds some way to incentivize its top rainmakers from leaving. Read full article at http://www.livemint.com/Companies/WjvaqPbQBLKl9lYYFoV74K/Top-talent-play-musical-chairs-at-law-firms.html

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