Chennai:
The battle over the entry of foreign law firms may still be on, but Indian law firms are in an aggressive mood, opening branches in new cities. A few years ago, Kochhar & Co., founded and managed by Rohit Kochhar, opened its base in Chennai. The latest big entrant is Amarchand Mangaldas. This 95-year-old award-winning law firm with 69 partners and over 550 lawyers, launched its Chennai office today, as part of its "String Of Pearls" strategy for South India. It's a full service law firm equipped to "provide end to end solutions to both international and domestic clients in the corporate arena, capital markets, mergers and acquisitions and real estate".
Tamil Nadu has a strong family business culture. "This is the key driver and the prime booster in the market for us", reveals Dorothy Thomas, the head of the Chennai office. From companies like TTK, TVS, Murugappa Group, Kasturi & Sons (publishers of The Hindu newspaper), Sun TV, Apollo Hospitals, MRF, India Cements, the list of family owned or run enterprises, many of them now public limited companies, is endless. Succession planning, family disputes and mergers and acquisitions present ample scope for law firms in the region.
Billed as the 'Detroit of Asia', Tamil Nadu is also a manufacturing hub. With not just a concentration of Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) companies, the State has a considerable presence in the service sector. The 'single window clearance, the vision documents and the GDP growth rate of 9.3 per cent, the highest in the South' have attracted law firms. Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner of Amarchand Mangaldas feels "powerful Chief Ministers who drive growth" is another draw.
However, law firms need to be wary of their fee structure. "Chennai is a price sensitive market", cautions Bharat Vasani, Chief Legal and Group General Counsel of the Tata Group. But the former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) M Damodaran, who was present at the firm's launch, seemed convinced that with Amarchand Mangaldas's "top quality legal service", the growth trajectory in this space is poised for an upward movement.
The Madras High Court, one of the oldest chartered courts in India, has seen a galaxy of legal luminaries like VL Ethiraj, former Attorney General K Parasaran and stalwarts like Govind Swaminathan. The 'senior-junior' working relationship may be still quite strong but it has also slowly given rise to the 'firm' culture. Quite a few bright young lawyers have started out on their own. Like HSB Partners - started, among others, by Srinath Sridevan, the son of former High Court judge Justice Prabha Sridevan. The firm has a posh, sprawling office in a commercial complex in the heart of the city. Or BFS Legal, another full service law firm that boasts of over a hundred companies and organisations as clients and an annual turnover of over Rs 1 crore.
So while Delhi and Mumbai were earlier seen as the natural habitat of those who want to reach the top echelons in the legal profession, Chennai is emerging as the next hot destination. The entry of Amarchand Mangaldas will just reinforce that status. And with a vibrant film industry here, don't be surprised if, quite like the Boston Legal TV series, we soon have a Chennai equivalent!