New beginnings after India’s largest law firm divides

Following an arbitral award from the Bombay high court, the dispute between Shardul Shroff and family, and Cyril Shroff and family, partners of Amarchand Mangaldas & Suresh Shroff and Co was successfully mediated and settled.

The two will now run separate, independent entities, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, respectively. A settlement has also been arrived at, which along with an agreement for division of the professional practice includes allocation of family properties and assets.

The mediation that led to this split began on November 14, 2014 following a Bombay high court hearing after which the brothers agreed to settle outside of the courtroom.

According to our ‘Find a Law Firm’ tables (see link above) Amarchand Mangaldas had well over 600 lawyers, making it by far the largest law firm in India in terms of head count, with Khaitan & Co (300+) second largest, followed by AZB and Luthra & Luthra Law Offices.

Partners and associates from the firm’s Delhi region (New Delhi, Gurgaon, Kolkata and Ahmedabad) have come together as Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. In addition, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co announced the opening of three new offices in Mumbai located at Express Towers (Nariman Point), Lentin Chambers (Fort) and Lloyds Centre Point (Prabhadevi), and an office in Bangalore located at Prestige Sterling Square, effectively covering six major business hubs across India (New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad and Kolkata).

In its announcement, the firm’s Executive Chairman, Shardul S. Shroff commented “In keeping with our legacy, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, will continue to focus on enabling businesses by providing innovative solutions as trusted advisors, with an added emphasis on collaboration, responsiveness, innovation and integrity”.

Elsewhere, speaking in The Economic Times on May 7th, Cyril Shroff said of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas: “At a one level, it is new venture, and at another, it is a continuation of the old. In Hindu philosophy, we believe in reincarnation and you generally don’t have a choice of what you will be incarnated into, but this is a reincarnation where we have a choice in terms of who we incarnate into.”

According to Cyril Shroff, in the same article, the firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas will commence with 580 lawyers and about 90+ partners: 61 from the legacy firm and around 30 or so new partners “I think that will position us almost right at the top. The new firm Cyril Amarchand … will still aim by 2017-18 to be a 1,000-lawyer law firm”.