The merger of Bangalore based Anup Shah Law Firm (Anup Shah) and AZB & Partners has only lasted slightly more than a year as both of them have decided to ‘re-align’ their partnership with effect from January 1, 2011.

In July last year, Anup Shah and AZB had decided to merge together with Mr. Anup Shah heading the Bangalore office. Speaking on the re-alignment, a joint press release of AZB & Anup Shah said, “such re-alignment would allow both AZB & Partners and Anup S Shah Law Firm to leverage their brand equity in corporate / M & A and real estate segments in Bangalore. The re-alignment will allow each to expand our core areas of strength in a greater way”.

Bahram Vakil speaking about the re-alignment said “Anup and his team have a great reputation in the real estate arena and we are hopeful the best friends’ alliance will allow us to leverage Anup’s relationship in the real estate sector”. Speaking to Bar & Bench, he added, “The Bangalore team would be comprised of 5 Partners and 18 Associates and they have an excellent relationship with Anup’s Partners and therefore benefit from each others expertise”.

Anup Shah’s law firm primarily advised real estate companies in Bangalore such as Mantri, Puravankara & Sobha and was considered as one of the leading real estate law firm in Bangalore. After the split with AZB, it is rumored Anup Shah’s Law firm would consist of 3 Partners and 20 Associates.

Mr. Anup Shah said, “We look forward to working with AZB & Partners. Our Partnership has been fruitful and this re-alignment will allow us to expand our core areas of strength in a greater way”.

Over the last year, AZB & Partners was involved in structuring several real estate transactions such as the deal between Mantri & Hyatt, Prestige’s IPO and a host of other transactions.

AZB & Partners has Best Friends relationship with Clifford Chance. Although a formal Best Friends relationship is new in India, most lawyers refer work based on the relationship of the Senior Partners of both firms.

One of the reasons for merger of AZB and Anup Shah in July 2009 was because a team comprising of Murali Ananthasivan and Vivek Chandy moved out of AZB to set up M&C Partners. It was reported that AZB had lost a large chunk of their real estate team to M&C. Later, M & C merged with JSA in Bangalore. AZB, which was earlier known as CZB Partners merged with Ajay Bahl in 2004 to become AZB & Partners.