Luthra & Luthra, SJ Law Advocates, Link Legal and Trilegal followed Amarchand domestically, where a total of 186 projects worth $79bn were counted in 2011.
Amarchand acted on 29 project financings worth over $16bn in the 2011 calendar year, overtaking the tally of Luthra’s 23 projects worth $10bn. SJ Law Advocates acted on 26 projects also worth $10bn, falling just behind Luthra.
While Amarchand’s total did not exceed Luthra’s 2010 lead of $23bn worth of projects, Luthra’s market share shrunk from of 36 per cent in 2010 to 13 per cent in 2011, as more firms picked up market shares in the Dealogic rankings.
In seventh place on the list is one-year-old project Clasis Law, where Mumbai-based projects partner Ishtiaq Ali completed 14 deals worth $3.6bn, after it broke away from ALMT Legal.
India Law Services recorded $4.8bn over 15 deals. Mumbai-based projects partner Tushar Desai said that last year had been a little slower in terms of deal activity, although he expected it to increase now.
Clasis Law partner Ishtiaq Ali said: “All my old clients are with Clasis Law. That is the reason we were able to complete 14 assignments on project finance.”
Ali told Legally India how the project finance market relied on the quantity of loan sanctions made by banks and the number of targets achieved past those sanctions. “Axis Bank and ICICI… to an extent OBC [Oriental Bank of Commerce] have been supportive,” he said.
Dealogic’s project finance law firm rankings depend to a large firm on firms disclosing and reporting deal information to dealogic, and may therefore understate figures for some firms.
Top 10 Legal Advisor Ranking for India - Full Year 2011
| Legal Adviser | Amount ($m) | No. | %share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co | 16,049 | 29 | 20 |
| Luthra & Luthra | 10,421 | 23 | 13 |
| SJ Law Advocates & Solicitors ( | 10,295 | 26 | 13 |
| Link Legal | 4,995 | 10 | 6 |
| Trilegal | 4,824 | 13 | 6 |
| 4,575 | 15 | 6 | |
| Clasis Law | 3,664 | 14 | 5 |
| KJSV Solicitors & Advoates | 2,637 | 2 | 3 |
| R & A Legal Advocates | 2,588 | 13 | 3 |
| FoxMandal Little & Co | 1,914 | 3 | 2 |
| Total | 79,306 | 186 | 100 |
Source: Dealogic
Comments
(ii) below tier 1 salaries -> cream moving to other firms -> drop in rankings.