Hotshot lawyers are switching jobs, taking entire teams with them

Senior corporate lawyers and leaders of the above practice groups are being snapped up by rivals at a fast pace, leading to a poaching ‘war’ among law firms, including top ones such as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, JSA Advocates & Solicitors, and Khaitan & Co, among others.

Often times, the ‘movers’ bring their entire teams with them, as clients are mostly loyal to individual lawyers or teams handling their cases, and not the law firms they work for.

Who's joining who

For instance, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas announced on Monday that Manan Lahoty, a capital markets partner at IndusLaw, is coming over along a team of eight partners and 43 advocates.

“The ongoing shifts within the industry are compelling law firms to re-evaluate their growth strategies," said Cyril Shroff, managing partner of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. "The time has come for law firms to seriously look at succession planning for all critical roles and develop internal candidates who can step up when the time comes."

Then, this July, JSA hired Nisha Kaur Uberoi, who headed the competition practice at Trilegal. Uberoi, who looks at complex areas such as merger control, cartels, abuse of dominance, and the digital economy, brought two partners and 25 attorneys with her.

 

Also joining JSA are Iqbal Khan and Ambarish, full-service law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co's private equity (PE) and M&A partners, along with their team of about 18-20 partners.

“Law firms are gearing up for what is expected to be a busy next couple of years and are picking up good talent," said Vivek K. Chandy, joint managing partner at JSA. “Lawyers are now getting fair offers and are getting paid properly for what they bring to the table."

Further, in June, Khaitan & Co roped in Avik Biswas and Vaibhav Bhardwaj from IndusLaw to head their employment, labour, and benefits practice. Biswas joined as a partner in Bengaluru while Bhardwaj joined as a partner based in Noida, along with their teams.

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Amar Sinhji, executive director for human resources at Khaitan & Co, said in an email response to Mint that the firm has done “specific hiring" for new offices and for practices that are growing.

“As India’s legal industry evolves, the competition to hire and retain the best talent has only intensified...Our lateral hiring has always been both specific and opportunistic..."said Sinhji.

“We will see more such major shifts, as firms who have lost partners will seek to rebuild, causing a domino effect," said Ritvik Lukose, co-founder and CEO of Vahura, a search and advisory firm focused on the legal and governance functions. “M&A, PE, disputes and competition are some of the areas in demand."

Big churn

The churn has been significant over the past couple of months. Vahura estimates that attrition amongst associate and senior associate is 25%, and practice acquisitions are now becoming “more common".

These take 6-10 months in the making with partners taking 35-60% of practice revenues. An associate and senior associate can have 1-9 years of experience and then gradually move into the role of a partner.

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“Today we see senior partners running sizeable practices that have clients who will move with the partner," said Lukose. "The more modern partnership models incentivise partners with a client book, while the earlier models were based on the assumption that the client is associated primarily with the law firm or its founders."

Challenge for law firms

This movement of talent poses a challenge for law firms, which they are devising strategies to address.

“Law firms that have been keeping all the profit with a select few partners are now finding that they have to share more and give lawyers the credit they deserve," said Chandy of JSA. “Where law firms are not willing to do this, they are losing top quality talent."

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Rival Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas noted that the ongoing shifts within the industry are compelling law firms to re-evaluate their growth strategies.

“With a significant focus on talent, enhancing talent attraction and retention strategies is imperative. Additionally, there is a crucial need for improved communication from leadership to navigate these volatile times successfully," Shroff added.