Nalsar ‘08 alum Manish Aggarwal gets partnership at global lit disrupter Three Crowns LLP

Wednesday, 16 January 2019 By Legally India Law firms

Nalsar Hyderabad 2008 alumnus Manish Aggarwal has become partner at top global arbitration start-up boutique Three Crowns LLP in London, having joined the firm from Allen & Overy (A&O) as a senior associate just after it had set up in 2014.

Aggarwal had begun his career at A&O London in 2008 after graduation, completing a post-graduate diploma in international dispute resolution from 2014 at the University of London’s Queen Mary college.

Three Crowns was set up in 2014 with offices London, Washington DC and Paris by six senior partners from firms such as Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Jones Day, Convington & Burling and Shearman & Sterling.

It now has 13 partners, including Aggarwal.

The firm’s USP: a partner-led service focusing purely on global arbitration, with profitability per equity partner reportedly having hit top magic circle firm levels of between £1.3m and £1.6m after its first year of operations.

We have reached out to Aggarwal and Three Crowns for comment.

Comments

Minor 16 Jan 2019, 07:52

+10 -12

Is Legally India now going to report on every small boutique firm promotion? If yes, why haven’t you reported on Mahesh Kumar’s promotion at Withers in Singapore? Mahesh and Manish were classmates and comparable rivals in Nalsar and Mahesh became partner in a bigger firm and before Manish!

See https://www.withersworldwide.com/en-gb/person/profile/pdf/7277

Guardian 16 Jan 2019, 10:11

+16 -2

I did not know either of the gentlemen but thanks to Legally India and of course your reaction, I now know two (additional) Indian qualified lawyers I can reach out to (in their respective jurisdictions) if I need assistance.

What is the problem here? Why make issue out of everything, Master Minor?

Upstart 16 Jan 2019, 15:05

+7 -3

Kudos to our Nalsar boy Manish. Also, I really wouldn't count a firm which has Jan Paulsson and Constantine Partasides as partners in the "every small boutique firm" category. Evidently, Minor is still a minor in his/her/xer knowledge of international arbitration giants.

Guest 17 Jan 2019, 02:16

+14 -2

@ Minor: LOL Dude, most of the partners in that "small boutique firm" are the fountainheads of contemporary international arbitration law and practice, and at one point headed some of the biggest law firms out there. And the practice itself is a hyper-competitive one, where fluency in three languages, qualifying in at least two jurisdictions, and a thorough pedigree in private and public international law only qualifies you for a junior associate position.

So it is nothing short of a small miracle how a NALSAR boy climbed up the totem pole in this record time without the benefit of any of these privileges. A real salt of the earth guy!

Magic Square 18 Jan 2019, 09:02

+3 -0

How petty are you Minor? What goes of your father?

City Lawyer 18 Jan 2019, 10:37

+2 -2

If you think 3C is a small boutique and not worth mention then you really are "minor". There's a saying - little learning....

lacy2 16 Jan 2019, 08:38

+0 -0

What on earth is an upstart

Alias 16 Jan 2019, 08:42

+0 -2

Well, its not on earth but on SKY.

kianganz 16 Jan 2019, 08:44

+1 -0

You're right, upstart was meant to signify that 3 Crowns was disrupting the status quo of lit, but didn't realise that 'upstart' didn't really have many positive connotations by its standard definition. Have changed the headline. :)

Guest 16 Jan 2019, 09:05

+5 -0

It's Queen Mary University of London.

kianganz 16 Jan 2019, 10:50

You're right, its full name is QMU of L, but Queen Mary is also a college of the University of London, I think...

Guest 16 Jan 2019, 11:00

https://london.ac.uk/ways-study/study-campus-london/member-institutions

I'm an alumni of QMUL :)

Guest 16 Jan 2019, 12:56

+0 -4

Kian is right. It is "Queen Mary College" part of University of London, same way as "King's College" or "University College" are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_London

G1 16 Jan 2019, 13:47

+2 -3

No its nt d same. UCL KCL LSE and imperial college give their own degrees while qmu the degree is of univ of london.

Well Wisher 16 Jan 2019, 12:09

+3 -1

Congratulations Manish!!!! You deserve every bit of it and more!!!

Guest 16 Jan 2019, 12:52

+1 -2

Kian please highlight more NLU alumni excluding NLSIU (with you always hype up). Also, your use of "upstart" was very insulting. I wonder if you would have used the term if there was an NLSIU alum involved.

kianganz 16 Jan 2019, 13:06

+4 -0

Hehe, no offence was intended, and in any case, upstart would have been referring to Three Crowns, which has apparently shaken up the litigation market a fair bit, bucking the traditional business model (though I haven't been able to find that many recent reports).

Re highlighting other NLU alumni, we're more than happy to, but the reason we cover NLS alums more than other NLUs is because they've simply been around for longer than any other NLU and therefore it is simply more likely that a greater number of them have attained seniority (and corresponding achievements) in the profession...

MBAspeak 17 Jan 2019, 02:27

Boss, Kian: although it is perfectly understandable for a journalist to not know the movers and shakers in every practice area that he reports on, I would refrain from throwing buzzwords around in response to being told that you are plain wrong.

3C has not and does not pretend to have bucked (whatever that means!) the traditional business model in the litigation market.

(1) their business model is not much different from others, only difference is that the partner to associate ratio is very small and every case gets tremendous amount of partners attention (personal choice of the partners who prefer doing advocacy rather than BD, no model here); (2) they don't operate in the "litigation market", international arbitration is a whole different deal (apples n oranges), and (3) they haven't shaken shit up, cus the partners there were big gorillas in this practice areas for decades and continue to get the work they used to earlier (perhaps with a bigger margin as they are no longer part of a larger set up).

In case ur wondering: yes, I work in arbitration and no, not for 3C.

Gareeb Litigator 16 Jan 2019, 13:54

+5 -1

Hi. I believe he has a PG Diploma in International Arbitration and not an LL.M.

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