Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) Chennai head and corporate partner Dorothy Thomas and her team are set to be joining Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM), according to authoritative sources.

We understand that discussions between CAM and Thomas have been ongoing for at least a month, including options such as closing down CAM’s Chennai office, which operates at lower profit margins than Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore due to local market conditions. The talks also included the option of Thomas continuing to be involved externally with CAM in some capacity.

However, it is understood that Thomas has now unexpectedly internally announced that she would transition to SAM, which is likely to be officially confirmed in the coming week.

We have reached out to Thomas for comment. Several partners from CAM and SAM did not respond to requests for comments or declined to comment.

Before Amarchand Mangaldas split up into CAM and SAM, Thomas had launched Amarchand Mangaldas’ Chennai office in 2012, joining from Kochhar & Co.

She had begun her career at Singhania & Co, after graduating from Symbiosis Law School in 1997, and had joined Kochhar in 2002, staying there for 10 years and becoming partner, working in Atlanta, USA, and in Chennai.

Under the separation agreement between brothers and former co-managing partners Shardul and Cyril Shroff, Mumbai-headquartered Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas was to keep the legacy firm’s Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad offices. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, headquartered in Delhi, retained Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Gurgaon.

Both brothers had since opened offices in Delhi and Mumbai respectively, with Shardul also expanding to Bangalore and Chennai.

SAM’s Chennai office is headed by Anand Bhushan, who was recently joined by former Dua Associates partner Aarthi Narayanan.

CAM’s Hyderabad office has seen the departure of Rahul Sarella in June, with Mumbai partner Anshuman Jaiswal returning to Hyderabad to head up the office by July.