Khaitan & Co has inducted 11 new equity partners, 9 new associate (salaried) partners and 4 counsels in its annual promotion round, taking it up to a total of 115 partners and directors and 15 counsels.
“As our firm continues to grow, it is talent that has been nurtured in our ethos, culture and environment that will continue to lead us on to the path of becoming the Indian law firm of choice,” Khaitan said in a statement.
A few days ago, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas announced the promotion of 20 to partner.
Practice area break-ups
Corporate was the biggest area to see promotions at the partner level (5 new partners, plus 1 new AP, and 1 counsel), with litigation getting each of 2 new equity partners, associate partners and counsel.
Both the funds (Divaspati Singh and Vivek Mimani) and the “securities; capital markets & corporate” practices (Subhayu Sen, Thomas George) saw two new associate partners () but no new equity partners.
By practice: Partners
- corporate: 5
- litigation: 2
- energy, infra & resources: 2
- banking & finance: 1
- indirect tax: 1
By practice: Associate partners & counsel
- litigation: 4 (2 APs, 2 counsel)
- securities, capital markets & corporate: 3 (2 APs, 1 counsel)
- funds: 2 APs
- corporate: 2 (1 AP, 1 counsel)
- competition: 1 AP
- direct tax: 1 AP
Law school break-ups
For students and others interested in the statistics, NUJS Kolkata and ILS Pune were the greatest contributor to Khaitan’s equity partnership this year, with three each, alongside Delhi University (2), and one new equity partner each from NLIU Bhopal, the London School of Economics (LSE) and NLSIU Bangalore.
The largest number of the new associate partner (AP) and counsel ranks came from Symbiosis Pune (with 3 APs and 1 counsel), with Delhi and Calcutta University each contributing two, and one new associate partner coming from ILS Pune, Gurugobind Singh University, Nalsar Hyderabad and Nuals Kochi.
By LLB college: Khaitan partner numbers
- NUJS Kolkata: 3
- ILS Pune: 3
- Delhi University: 2
- LSE: 1
- NLIU Bhopal: 1
- NLSIU Bangalore: 1
By LLB college: Associate partner & counsel number
- Symbiosis Pune: 4 (3 APs + 1 counsel)
- Delhi University: 2 (1 AP + 1 counsel)
- University of Kolkata: 2 (1 AP + 1 counsel)
- ILS Pune: 1 AP
- Gurugobind Singh University: 1 AP
- Nalsar Hyderabad: 1 AP
- Nuals Kochi: 1 AP
- Mumbai University: 1 counsel
FULL LIST OF PARTNERS
MUMBAI
ABHISHEK SINHA (Corporate) B.S.L., LL.B., ILS Law College, Pune
AKHIL BHATNAGAR (Energy; Infrastructure & Resources) B.S.L., LL.B., ILS Law College, Pune
ANSHUL PRAKASH (Corporate) B.A., LL.B., (Hons.), NUJS Kolkata
ANUJ SAH (Corporate) LL.B., ILS Law College, Pune
GAHAN SINGH (Energy; Infrastructure & Resources) B.A., LL.B., (Hons.), NLIU Bhopal
MANISHA SHROFF (Banking & Finance) B.A., LL.B., (Hons.), NUJS Kolkata
VINEET SHINGAL (Corporate) LLB Law, London School of Economics and Political Science BA (Hons.), Philosophy, St. Stephens’s College, University of Delhi
NEW DELHI
KABIR BOGRA (Indirect Tax) B.A. LL.B., (Hons.), NLSIU Bangalore
RAJAT JARIWAL (Litigation) LL.B., Campus Law Centre, Delhi University
RAJIV SHANKER BHATNAGAR (Litigation) LL.B., Delhi University Bachelor of Commerce, Delhi University
KOLKATA
ARINDAM SARKAR (Corporate) B.A., LL.B., NUJS Kolkata
ASSOCIATE PARTNERS
MUMBAI
DIVASPATI SINGH (Funds) B.S.L., LL.B., Symbiosis Pune
RITU SHAKTAWAT (Direct Tax) C.A., ICAI B.Com. (Hons.), University of Delhi
SUBHAYU SEN (Securities; Capital Markets & Corporate) Master’s Degree in Corporate Laws, University of Cambridge, U.K.; LL.B., Symbiosis Pune
VIVEK MIMANI (Funds) B.S.L., LL.B., ILS Law College, Pune
NEW DELHI
DIVYA CHATURVEDI (Litigation) B.A., LL.B., School of Law & Legal Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
SAGARDEEP RATHI (Competition) LL.M., King’s College London, U.K.; B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), Nalsar Hyderabad
BENGALURU
THOMAS GEORGE (Securities; Capital Markets & Corporate) B.A., LL.B. (Hons.), Nuals Kochi
KOLKATA
SUPRATIM CHAKRABORTY Corporate B.B.A., LL.B., Symbiosis Pune
VIVEK JHUNJHUNWALA Litigation LL.B., University of Calcutta
COUNSELS
MUMBAI
STUTI GALIYA Corporate LL.M., Mumbai University B.Sc., LL.B., Mumbai University
VAIBHAV MITTAL Securities; Capital Markets & Corporate B.S.L., LL.B., Symbiosis Pune
NEW DELHI
SHABYASHACHI PATRA Litigation B.A. (Hons.), LL.B., Delhi University
KOLKATA
ROOPA SHETH MITRA Litigation B. A., LL.B., Calcutta University
Comments
2.Akhil, Anuj and Sinha, congratulations and well done! Anshul and Ritu, well deserved!
3. Great choice of Supra and Arindam in Cal office as well. Very happy to see both Divas and Vivek making the cut.
4. Also very obvious is the decision not to promote a couple of individuals, which I think is an excellent call - they needed more time.
5. Congratulations to all and wish you all the best!
Associate Partner: 45 - 60 L
Counsels: 40 - 60 L
Now when some people are not promoted by khaitan but others of similar PQE are, the people who didn't make it simply needed more time, no lack of quality.
I am sure people at both firms are extremely competent, but are we not being a little harsh on CAM promotions and a little easy on Khaitan promotions.
I mean, they're theoretically fair comment / opinion, but they seem to appear by default under every second partnership story of a big firm these days and don't really add much to the discussion (nor allow for any actual disputation).
Please vote my comment up (if you want more moderation) or down (if it's fine as is), if you have strong views on this.
But on the flipside, congratulatory messages, also don't have the disadvantage of being unnecessarily mean about people (and they also might make someone happy, which is nice).
I think there's maybe a fine line between just saying "the new partners are all rubbish" (which I don't think anyone is taking seriously at face value and doesn't have much point) and commentating in a slightly more nuanced manner about the strategy of the promotions, quality, seniority, practice areas etc.
I'm not sure though, it's not an easy one to take a call on, either way...
Plus CAM/SAM are a much bigger brand than Khaitan so their announcements disappoint more than others. For all its struggle Khaitan is not an A list firm (nobody would work there if they had a similar position at CAM/SAM with equal pay).
The point here is that Kian may want to stick to niceties, but real journalism is meant to pick below the surface, clearly he doesn't want to do that that.
Fresh lawyers pick up the market sentiment in 2-3 years. The congratulatory comments here are mostly law students with a couple of internships an hero-worship as well as A0s and A1s who are yet to get over their honeymoon period.
But since I also read the comments that are moderated, I am also aware that there's a lot of nastiness and back-biting going on against firms and individuals (much of which is unpublished).
I also believe that in more mature legal markets, even on sites such as AboveTheLaw, people aren't commenting that 'OMG, some of the latest batch of partners at CC are rubbish, the firm is a sinking ship'.
In part that is because those firms are bigger and their promotion strategies, etc, are less likely to change year by year, or be affected by transformative market events like the AMSS break-up, though I can guarantee you that rubbish (from certain viewpoints) also makes it to the top at foreign law firm partnerships.
But I also doubt that those leaving comments in the vein of 'some of the new batch is rubbish', actually know a significant enough portion of a new batch and what kind of work product and billing they deliver.
Perhaps in individual cases, the market or individual lawyers will have a strong opinion, though we always seek to moderate comments about the quality or skills of individual lawyers in any case.
However, I think it's fair to examine the seniority of promotees and compare that to other firms or to previous years, and draw conclusions from that about firm strategy.
The reason I raised the point though is that I periodically want to have a dialogue with readers about the comments with the community (rather than just with partners who complain to me personally about the negativity), to establish whether the line is drawn in the right place or whether it should move...