Real Estate expansion at Amarchand Towers to accommodate headcount

The Delhi office of Amarchand Mangaldas (Amarchand) has added 22,000 square feet thereby taking full occupancy of Amarchand Towers to 73,000 sq feet. Amarchand Towers is now fully occupied by Amarchand Mangaldas. Amarchand had acquired Amarchand Towers, the existing building in the Okhla area of New Delhi during the real estate slump in 2002-03. The Delhi office currently has over 200 lawyers. Amarchand is expected to increase the head count by an additional 80-90 lawyers this year including 8-10 new Partners.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Managing Partner of the Delhi office, Shardul Shroff (pictured) said, “We will increase our headcount this year and want to provide additional space and infrastructure, and therefore have decided to occupy the ground floor of the building we own”.

Amarchand may appoint up to 4 new Partners in May this year after their internal Management Committee approves these promotions. The additional space will benefit the firm given the additional hires, new Partner promotions and the recently set up crèche within the law firm premises.

Practice Areas

Amarchand has been gradually expanding its practice areas and has made strong forays in the areas of intellectual property, taxation and competition law. Last year Amarchand expanded to include insurance law as a new practice area and this year, two new practice areas will be added, labour and environment. Most global law firms have large practice groups focusing on labour and environment. Labour statistics reveal that there are more than 350 reported lockouts and strikes that occur every year across large corporations.

Apart from strikes there are several issues of labour compliances that have concerned technology corporations. The growth in the retail industry has also meant that more complex issues concerning labour management practices have affected retail corporations contributing to the decisions of major law firms to specialize in this sector. In the US for instance, the last decade witnessed tremendous growth for retail giant, Walmart. Its growth has been accompanied by labour practice violations and compliance related issues that have benefitted firms like Patton Boggs and Venable. Given the India growth story coupled with surge of the Indian manufacturing and technology sectors, labour practice specialization will be vital to full service law firms providing multi-sector practice expertise.  Amarchand’s new labour law practice will complement and provide synergies for its already existing Government and Policy practice.  

The intent of maintaining quality and adhering to the Amarchand standard is clear as evidenced by Shardul’s summing up of the situation:

“A brand like Amarchand cannot provide sub-standard service, therefore when we announce a practice area, we need to have the right partners and associates to take ownership and also the right set of clients.”

Investment in Technology and Administration

Amarchand has established specialist administration departments to assist lawyers and ensure that lawyers focus on the legal issues as opposed to being bogged down by administrative issues. The emphasis on effective time management and quality control will ensure that clients receive optimal value. In smaller firms, most lawyers are also saddled with administrative duties. Amarchand however, believes that the firm, in order to get to the next level of expansion and growth has to build strong administration capabilities to tackle growth. The firm has invested substantial resources in creating a strong Applied Research and Strategy group, communications team, knowledge creation and management group and a strong administration team to support lawyers and focus on business development.

“Lawyers managing administration may not be the best of decisions” says Shardul. There are reasons for this, law firm management of large law firms may not be similar to that of running operations of a similar size manufacture or technology company. Nottingham University in UK and Stony Brook University in US have specialized MBA programs specifically for Law Firm managers. Foreign law firms use a similar structure of administration as is being adopted by Shardul with a designated administration team focusing on administrative issues and freeing up the lawyers' time to focus on legal issues.

Amarchand has also been working with the customized version of Reuters’ platform, Elite 3E. This customized product of Reuters helps firms in generating intelligent management information system (MIS) reports and provides details of exact billable hours and revenue generated by associates and partners. The firm has also adopted document management systems like iManage. “With new technology and the right precedent, turn around time becomes quicker and improves individual performance” says Shardul. The emphasis on quality is clearly evident.

With India’s largest law firm adopting an aggressive outlook, it may herald good tidings for law firm aspirants as the job market may have just received a shot in the arm after the global slowdown of the past two years. Irrespective, the Amarchand growth story continues.