Khaitan & Co has promoted seven of its principal associates to non-equity partner level, though formally the firm has abolished the associate partner designation to help its young partners in brand-building and to externally present a more unified partnership.

Executive director Amar Sinhji explained: “The firm has decided to do away with the ‘associate partner’ designation in keeping with global trends of partnership.”

The firm has now promoted the following seven to ‘partner’ tag, though technically they would still be salaried partners (left to right, pictured above):

Kolkata:

• Dipen Chatterjee, corporate, Calcutta University LLB

Mumbai:

• Akshay Bhargav, corporate, Bangalore University LLB
• Devendra Deshmukh, real estate, Mumbai University LLB
• Harsh Parikh, real estate, GLC Mumbai LLB

Delhi:

• Aseem Chaturvedi, dispute resolution, GGSIP Delhi LLB
• Ayush Mehrotra, indirect tax, GGSIP Delhi LLB
• Shruti Singh, corporate, Nalsar Hyderabad LLB

As of April 2018, Khaitan had 124 partners in total, out of whom 91 were equity and 36 were of salaried partner level.

Sinhji explained that all partners at Khaitan would soon be called partners, “however not all partners would hold equity”. “That is a matter of performance and progression once he / she becomes a partner,” he said.

“This move will help us show a single unified face of our partnership and help our young partners in building a brand early and enable stronger buy-in from clients,” he added. “This change will add much more value to the overall partnership.”