K Law will be losing five of its partners in Mumbai, and one partner each in Delhi and Bangalore.

The Mumbai partners leaving are:

• partner Sharad Joshi, who had joined as an associate partner from Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas in 2015, where he was a senior associate,
• partner Sanket Sethia, a 1999-graduate who had been at K Law since 2008,
• shipping partner Kumar Abhishek Singh (who had been hired less than a year ago),
• corporate partner Sankar Narayan Swamy, who was promoted from associate partner to partner in 2015,
• corporate partner Krishna Venkat, who had been hired in 2016 as a partner from Trilegal.

Also leaving in Delhi is:

• projects and infrastructure partner Nilesh Chandra, who had joined from HSA Advocates one year ago.

And in Bangalore:

• corporate partner Abhinav Singh, who had been promoted in 2015.

Managing partner Naina Krishnamurthy confirmed their departure, with them having agreed to finish all their matters at the firm, and commented: “It is something that has been in the works for some time.”

“I started this journey of mine 19 years ago, and you know at different stages people wanted to start on their own and wanted to start their own thing, because I started this on my own. So I’ve always been absolutely supportive of people who’ve done that. There’s been some entrepreneurial aspirations amongst different people.”

On a joint conference call with Krishnamurthy and the Mumbai departing partners, when asked whether all would be moving somewhere together, Kumar Abhishek Singh said: “We are still reviewing our options, whether together or not, it will be clarified in due course, and shortly.

“As on date we don’t have a concrete decision. whether connected or not, only time will say.”

Before the departure, K Law had a total partnership strength of around 13 across offices, having recently also added partner Vishal Bhatt in Bangalore - former general counsel of Sriram Properties - and intellectual property (IP) partner Isha Rathnam in Mumbai.

The departures would leave Mumbai with only three partners full-time - Krishnamurthy and Rathnam - but Krishnamurthy said that that that “advanced discussions” were in progress for four partners to join in Mumbai, and two more in Bangalore.

Delhi partner Pradeep Ratnam, who had joined in 2016 from ILFS, would also be spending significant time in Mumbai during the transition.