A string of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ (CAM) senior and principal associates have left in recent months, following the hiring spree by the firm following its split with Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.
At least nine fee-earners holding designations of senior associate and above left the firm or are in the process of leaving, since late 2015.
The leavers:
- principal associate designate Madhuparna Dasgupta (Mumbai) left in October 2015 and joined Khaitan & Co as principal associate;
- principal associate designate Abhimanyu Ghosh (Mumbai) had joined Trilegal as counsel in November 2015;
- senior consultant Nitesh Jain (Delhi) joined Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai as principal associate late last year;
- principal associate Vishaka Prasad (Mumbai) will also join Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai by next week;
- litigation senior associate Abhishek Singh (Delhi) joined Luthra & Luthra as managing associate in 2016;
- Delhi senior associate designate Dipti Bedi (Delhi) is understood to be moving in-house
- principal associate Mumbai Abhinav Surana has left and would join JurisCorp as a partner, Bar & Bench had reported;
- principal associate Harsh Maggon (Mumbai) has resigned and is understood to have been in talks with at least one other firm; and
- principal associate Shyamali Singh (Mumbai) has resigned but Legally India could not confirm at the time of going to press where she would be heading.
“The attrition levels are normal. All the associates above are leaving on good terms with our goodwill,” commented CAM managing partner Cyril Shroff.
He added: “Side by side we are also recruiting at all levels. And the firm continues to grow and prosper.”
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas began aggressive lateral hiring for its half of the broken-up Amarchand Mangaldas in March 2015, particularly when setting up its Delhi office, kicking off with 13 partners from 11 Indian law firms and from the in-house sector by May.
The 99-year-old Amarchand Mangaldas partnership law firm dissolved on 6 May 2015, after over six months of protracted mediation following a Bombay high court case between brothers Shardul Shroff and Cyril Shroff over their late mother’s inheritance.
Comments
1. For better prospects in other firms?
2. More money?
3. Terrible work culture in CAM?
In your heyday you could do it, and everyone believed it's Ok, I work with a top brand and it's worth it, at least until I can negotiate a better job based on the brand, otherwise there was nothing to look forward to. So, you saw people as a cog in the machine, which was solely self-serving then people returned you the favour at a time when people should have stood by you. Wake up times have changed, before it is too late.
Understand that a lawyer's contribution need not be "book size". Fees can be earned by providing service and managing clients. A good young lawyer has immense value for the partnership ... no point making fun of them with the "book size" joke. Google finder-minder-binder-grinder for some interesting stuff.
Good luck!
All the best.
Cyril Bhai- I am really good at my work. Trust me!!
1) The family which owns the firm and is obviously not looking to move;
2) The partners who are comfortably ensconced at India's biggest brand name firm. 50 percent of these are totally incompetent but continue to draw their government - sorry Amarchand - monthly pension, because a) clients cannot tell/do not care/have even more incompetent legal functions, or b) partners at other firms are as bad;
3) The frustrated "good" associates who are desperately biding their time and want to/have already moved but are thwarted for lack of credible alternative options. Like Gollum commented, foreign firms really do need to come in!; and
4) The associates who do not move because they are unlikely to have options at any other place because a) their recruitment was motivated by the drive to reach 1000 lawyers instead of being driven and founded on quality, or b) otherwise good associates who are now totally untrained because the huge size of the firm/incompetent unocncerned partnership means they are doing f"k all and twiddling their thumbs, not learning anything and continuing to remain untrained.
Hats off to these guys who left who mostly belong to 3 above. So do I (haven't moved yet) and I hope to emulate them soon. Off all the Amarchand people who have quit and gone, I am yet to meet a single person who has told me that he is not better off financially, technically, emotionally and skills wise after leaving.
It's time the emperor was told it has no clothes!
"Judge Me By My Size, Do you?"
I understand that commerce ministry is still very serious about it. Maybe after GST gets passed, if ever, Modi will get around to second stage of reform?
Pretty impressed by them being able to get through commercial courts, pecuniary jurisdiction and arbitration acts, so maybe they'll do this too.
Let's wait and see. If anyone has any info, please do share.
We're not cozied up to anyone! :)
They can speak as to both the positives and negatives. The page could be allocated firm-wise. Essentially this is crowd sourced 360 feedback from associates with the benefit of anonymity so true stories will come out. You can have a policy in place to moderate out the loonies. In addition, people could start posting their salaries etc.
A lot of the nonsense that law firms are able to get away with in India is because associates are unable to raise their voice. Let's use the Internet to give them a space and shine a light on the rubbish that law firms get up to!
Maybe in the future you could even develop this further. Have a Dear Lucy column for an associate struggling with a problem at a firm, get foreign associates to write an occasional column as to how foreign firms would behave in a similar scenario, extend it to partners etc.
What say?
How to channel that discussion though so it doesn't just turn into a free-for-all wall of hundreds of comments of gripes, grudges, gossip, etc, that would stop being useful once it becomes popular due to the amount of unorganised content?
We could add something on the LegallyPedia wiki, which would be a bit more structured, since it'd have sections that everyone can add thoughts to.
http://www.legallyindia.com/wiki/Indian_law_firms
We can enable anonymous commenting and disable IP address recording for certain pages, to allow for free debate (though also opening it up to vandalism, potentially.
Or we could host it on the forum, which allows for anonymous contributions.
http://www.legallyindia.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&view=category&catid=2&Itemid=1055
Any thoughts and ideas of dealing with practical challenges welcome.
I would love to collaborate with you on this. The problem is I need to keep my identity anonymous. Is there a way we can correspond/work together on this on this basis.
I think it's time we had a bit of an Associate Spring in this country and some upward pressure for change. People are depressed, unhappy and unfairly discriminated against - they deserve better!
You can create a disposable email address, or try a service like this to send me an email easily at kian at legallyindia com:
https://www.guerrillamail.com/
People who are considered "loyal" will be putting in their papers soon.
What will you say then?
Exodus from CAM begin in May 2016.