AZB & Partners has promoted Bhavi Sanghvi to partner in Mumbai.
Sanghvi had joined the firm in 2006 after graduating from NLSIU Bangalore, reported Bar & Bench today.
Sanghi specialises in corporate and M&A and had acted on the team on such deals as the 2012 Bharti buy of Qualcomm 4G spectrum licences in India for $165m.
Yesterday Khaitan & Co, Trilegal and J Sagar Associates promoted a total of 23 lawyers to partnership:
- Khaitan & Co promoted two into equity partnership and 11 into salaried partnership.
- Trilegal promoted one equity partner internally and hired one from Deloitte.
- JSA promoted nine associates to salaried partner.
Comments
They may be good with MnA but generally thats about it! I have worked with a few partners there and I was not left impressed. Remember correcting one particular partner's basis legal concepts on two occasions. Agree no one knows everything about everything offhand, but it was Contracts Act.
Look at the way AZB hired Anand Shah from Wadia Ghandy few months ago on the promise of a partnership. Where is he now? Am sure he's having second and third thoughts about his decision to quit an old firm like WG as partner and join AZB as just another bit of cannon fodder.
If these kind of bizarre promotions continue, its a safe bet to say no one with any self-respect, moral courage and brains will stick around at AZB for very long (assuming there still are such people)
Ok here's some facts I know of. some are in the public domain, some are known to lawyers who work at the firm and some are already there on LI's article http://www.legallyindia.com/201312304208/Law-firms/wadia-ghandy-anand-shah-joins-azb
1. Anand Shah was a partner at WG (not an ass. partner or a deputy partner but a proper legal partner)
2. He joined AZB in January as a Senior Associate (thats 3 months ago, not 2 )
3. The firm made plenty of promises of him being n 'partnership track' , blah blah when he joined
4. After his joining his "team" was split up in the purest traditions of AZB to ensure he would not become a power centre and do to AZB what he did to WG (leave and join a rival with his whole team). Today's he's running around doing tasks for Abhijit Joshi and his team are similarly doing work for others in the firm
5. And lastly there's this partnership of Bhavi which means for the next one year at least Anand can give up all hope of being a partner, if at all.
My guess is that poor ol Anand shah ws duped into joining with tall promises which Zia will not carry out on some pretext or the other and spit the poor guy out of the firm in a couple of years after all his contacts have been milked to the full.
Secondly -
1. Yes, Anand Shah was a partner and no, he wasn't a legal partner (I'm guessing you mean equity, which he was not).
2. Yes it's been over 2 months but not 3 months yet (Jan 21 being his joining date). Apparently, you can't count very well.
3. His "team" is still working primarily with him. Yes, some of them are involved on transactions with other partners, but no, they haven't been "split up in the purest traditions of AZB". 80% of their work is his work. Whether this will continue or eventually they will be completely integrated into the firm and not work for / with him is anybody's guess. It would make sense for the firm though to ensure that they work with other people and integrate into the firm well so they don't leave if Anand Shah leaves.
Now comes for the real clincher - you're definitely someone in AZB who's obviously ignorant, has pre-conceived notions about your own firm and is really really bitter for some reason. What happened? Didn't get promoted this year? Are you not having fun on the retreat? Gotten pulled up for not updating your time-sheets? You seem incredibly unhappy with your job and your life and inclined towards removing your frustrations by indulging in nonsensical ramblings of a person who is highly dissatisfied, frustrated and directionless. No one has been duped and no one is going to be spit out. Everyone involved is a an adult and coming in with their eyes wide open. Quit your job and sit at home and write a conspiracy theory based Dan Brown-esque fast paced mystery novel filled with cliched John Grisham extracts of dirty dealings and strategies of a conniving law firm managing partner. You'd be good at that - once you learn how to type properly of course.
Anyways, some more words. Yes, I may or may not be an insider who did or did not get promoted but that's not relevant while analysing the merits of a promotion - unless you're suggesting only outsiders who get super-fast promotions can do that - which is plain stupid (and I'm sure you're not stupid enough to suggest that). [...]
The Anand Shah example shows the risks of not doing sufficient homework. He's obviously keen to have his old team with him. That's not happening at AZB and unless this is what they all planned (which is very doubtful) they will all soon be no different than any other team-less associates at the firm. So from a partner at WG with his own team and some business contacts, he's an associate at AZB with no team and soon-to-disappear business contacts. Not a deal I'd make or recommend.
NB - Since you did not understand, a 'legal' partner is a partner under the partnership act. The act does not distinguish between equity and salaried and technically are salaried partners are equity partners with a negligible amount of equity. This is important because many firms promote people as 'asst. or Dy.' partners who are not legally speaking partners of the firm. Happy to elaborate further if you don't get it.
Also, I am wondering if a defamation action would lie against those who post comments which are clearly defamatory in nature. Even against LI for allowing such comments to be posted (esp since LI apparently screens comments before they show up) . It shouldnt be that hard to trace the IP address and bust everyones anonymity. Any thoughts on that?
It all pretty much looks like commenters' personal opinions, to me.
If there's anything you think is defamatory, please click 'report to LI' to send us a message and we'll look into it.
Thanks
Kian
Are you suggesting that IP addresses be traced? Are you recommending surveillance and violation of privacy rights? Shame.
And your "any thoughts on that" is a pretty sinister and thinly veiled attempt at preventing unsubstantiated and biased personal views from being disseminated. We LI readers will not stand for it!
Really? Even compared to firms such as AMSS, TTA, S&R? That is interesting - Kian, any chance of your doing another salary survey?