J Sagar Associates (JSA) made up eight equity partners in Delhi Gurgaon, Bombay and Bangalore effective 1 April, according to a press release.

The following retained partners were lifted into the equity:

Delhi:

• Amitabh Kumar,
• Dheeraj Nair, and
• Anupam Verma,

Gurgaon:

• Divyanshu Pandey,
• Sidharrth Shankar, and
• Rupinder Malik,

and

• Mumbai partner Vikram Raghani, and
• Bangalore partner Gerald Manoharan.

Kumar heads JSA’s competition practice, Nair is part of disputes, Verma is in regulatory policy and constitutional disputes, Pandey is part of banking and finance and corporate commercial, Shankar and Malik are in general corporate, Raghani is in M&A, private equity and securities and Manoharan focuses on M&A, foreign direct investment and infrastructure.

JSA managing partner Berjis Desai commented in a press release: “The Partnership warmly welcomes and congratulates our new Equity Partners. As an equal opportunity firm, JSA remains committed to its collegiate model, which is not owned & controlled by any individual or family. With these inductions, JSA will now have 33 equity partners.”

The firm has not promoted so many partners ever before and this round was aimed at “[expediting] the process” and “accelerating the career paths”, he told Bar & Bench adding that the firm gears up for another six partner promotions next year.

Partnership limits

The statutory limit of 20 partners under the old Companies Act 1956, was already reached under JSA’s deed.

The most recent promotions of retained partners at the firm were to the rank of equity partner-elect – a designation at JSA which comes with all the privileges of an equity partner except acceding to the partnership deed.

Desai had told Legally India in 2012 that the firm was opposed to creating more than one partnership and was hoping for regulatory reform.

However, Desai told Legally India today that since the new Companies Act was passed lifting the 20-partner restriction, the JSA partnership, which is registered in Delhi, had converted all its equity partners elect to equity around a year ago.

Most other firms with more than 20 partners have to date operated as separate partnerships, with profit shared between them through a variety of complex accounting arrangements.

Desai said that he believed other firms were also considering the change to a single partnership brought about by the Companies Act.

The partnership track at JSA is the longest among India’s six biggest law firms – with it taking around two years longer than what it takes on an average in the other five to make partner, according to Legally India’s research.