Saurav Kumar, who was partner (M&A) at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, has joined mid-sized law firm IndusLaw as partner.
This comes at the time when the Shardul Shroff-promoted firm has poached the entire corporate advisory team of smaller rival BMR Legal including four partners and 30 lawyers.
An alumnus of ILS Law College (Pune) and University of Bristol (the UK), Kumar was involved in structuring investments of Maxis Communications Berhad in Aircel Ltd and Astro All Asia Networks in Chennai-based Sun Group during his stint at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas.
He specialises in M&As, private equity and joint ventures and was part of many domestic as well as cross-border transactions in sectors including telecom, media, real estate, pharmaceuticals and consumer internet, among others.
Earlier in January, IndusLaw hired Sandeep Grover as partner in its litigation practice from Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas where he was principal associate. The firm has recently promoted two principal associates from its Bengaluru office—Pallavi Kanakagiri and Winnie Shekhar—as partners.
Now, IndusLaw has 20 partners and over 100 associates across its four offices in Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
“IndusLaw is expanding strategically and poaching only relevant people in select service areas unlike other mid-sized law firms which are hiring rampantly to boost the numbers,†said a Delhi-based lawyer, requesting anonymity. “This may lead to slower growth in the short term, but in the long run, the strategy will pay off,†he said.
Many mid-sized law firms are ramping up their core practice areas as Indian firms’ legal expenses continue to surge. Legal and professional costs for Indian publicly listed companies rose over 7% to Rs 25,593 crore in FY2015-16 from a year earlier, according to a VCCircle study.