ELP has also relocated Mumbai senior associate Monish Panda to Delhi and hired four lawyers with between four and six years of experience and four associates to constitute a new litigation team of nine, to be headed by Nagra.
Nagra joined Amarchand in September 2002. He has handled litigation and arbitration matters in areas including tax, corporate, intellectual property, telecom, insurance, aerospace, anti-corruption laws, contracts, derivatives, real estate, banking and infrastructure, according to a statement from the firm.
Amarchand Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff and partner Pallavi Shroff wished him all the best in life.
Panda joined ELP Mumbai’s litigation team in 2011 after five years at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) Delhi. He primarily handles indirect tax.
ELP also hired LKS principal associate of six years Tarun Jain, Fox Mandal Delhi associate of over a year
Pranav Vyas, AZB & Partners associate of three years Kartik Yadav, and Vaish Associates associate of three years Somnath Shukla.
The firm hired Kshitiz Karzee, Prithvi Kapur, Shankey Agrawal and Avneesh Arputham as associates.
ELP managing partner Rohan Shah commented in a press release: “We are delighted to have this quality team of litigators join our litigation practice in Delhi. This team with its excellent track record, and, antecedents, gives us strong capabilities across all areas of our litigation focus – tax, non-‐tax and regulatory. We look forward to a continuation of the strong growth we have experienced over the past few years in our litigation practice.”
Comments
Many firms have stellar reputation, wide client base and handle very good work, although they are not viewed as tier 1 (tier depends on turnover, overall quality, type of clients, reputation, bandwidth, resources available, views of corporate clients, views of firms in other countries, etc). ELP would be a firm like that – not tier 1 but good reputation and client base. Nishith Desai Associates, Wadia Gandhy, etc. would be similar examples. Both, like ELP, are Mumbai headquartered. ELP is quite well known for tax and litigation and, from that perspective, they can be said to be tier 1 (but not overall). Within the top-firms club, some firms like Amarchand, JSA, AZB and S&R enjoy better standing as compared to the other biggies like Luthra, Trilegal and Khaitan. Some smaller firms enjoy tier 1 reputation for quality, like Platinum Partners, Talwar Thakore Associates, etc. Also, some tier 2 or 3 firms offer tremendous exposure, learning and responsibility but the pay is not tier 1. There is also a view that tier 1 offers better learning in terms of complexity of deals and quality, but smaller firms with quality partners and senior associates may also offer exposure to quality work and working style. So, you see, the rankings of firms can be done on various criteria. For internships, you should pick firms with the best reputation and also do a couple of stints with smaller boutique firms (Anand & Anand for IPR, Finsec for financial regulatory work, Vaish, ELP and Lakshmikumaran for tax, etc.) depending on your interest. For recruitment, you’ll have to decide whether you want to enjoy the best pay or whether you would be okay with lesser pay for a certain city or certain type of work. Honestly, I don’t think any tier 2 or 3 firm offers anything more than tier 1 to compensate for the lower pay, except that they offer more responsibility in the initial years. That isn’t necessarily a good thing. Remember, tier 1 firms can match the turnover of tier 2 and 3 firms from fewer clients. Some firms are in tier 1 by volume and some by reputation for quality. Some firms are in between tier 1 and tier 2. There are lots of factors to rank a firm and it isn’t easy because most tier 1 and tier 2 firms have lawyers who have moved from tier 1 to tier 2 and vice versa – so, it can be said that it boils down to turnover (at least that’s what they do in the west e.g. top 5 UK firms by revenue are called the Magic Circle). However, the Indian market is different - overall turnover may not mean so much because a small firm may earn half of what another bigger firm is making, but that small firm may be more profitable (overall revenue per lawyer is double of the bigger firm!) or may have better reputation for quality. A lawyer’s choice of firm should be based on what he wants from the firm he joins (of course, he includes she). All the best!
Disclaimer: This is just to provide a law student with a basic idea of what the general perception is, and should not be viewed as a ranking of firms.
in ELP the structure is Associate > Associate Manager > Senior Associate > Partner > Equity Partner > Managing Partner
which one is better?
First and foremost, we should give credit to the intelligence of the person who has moved on from LKS to ELP. He knows better as to which position is better. Do you mean that any one would have moved out even if the position offered or the career prospects are even equal or slightly lesser than LKS? LKS looks very good from outside. But those who are working inside only knows what it is like. Please take it, no one who has moved out of LKS has regretted his/her decision, rather they have prospered both in career terms and financial terms.
Wishing Mr. Tarun Jain all the bests.
in ELP the structure is Associate > Associate Manager > Senior Associate > Partner > Equity Partner > Managing Partner
which one is better?[/quote]
ELP while having good reputation previously are now more on the fringes.. Clients are leaving for smaller boutique practices and picture is not rosy. Work is coming from bombay only as Delhi based clients prefer the Big 4 or the Boutique firm route. New person from bombay may not be able to understand this philosophy