Amarchand drives expansion plans with new office in Ahmedabad

Amarchand Mangaldas has launched its new office in Ahmedabad, which will be headed by Corporate Partner Pankaj Agarwal and Litigation Partner Tejas Karia. Bharti Shroff, Senior Partner at Amarchand Mangaldas inaugurated the new office located in the Prahladnagar locality in Ahmedabad..Amarchand Mangaldas has launched its new office in Ahmedabad, which will be headed by Corporate Partner Pankaj Agarwal and Litigation Partner Tejas Karia. Bharti Shroff, Senior Partner at Amarchand Mangaldas inaugurated the new office located in the Prahladnagar locality in Ahmedabad. The office shall start operations from May 1, 2012..The opening of the new office is part of the firm’s plan to have 1,000 lawyers and 100 partners by 2017. As per the press release, the firm currently has 555 lawyers including 59 partners and offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad..The regional expansion initiative is spearheaded by Pankaj Agarwal, Partner, who works in Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Joint Ventures, Financing, and Corporate Advisory group with a special focus on Real Estate and Private Equity transactions. Pankaj had been promoted to Partner last year and will now relocate from Delhi to head the office’s corporate practice..Speaking to Bar & Bench Pankaj said, “I see this as a great opportunity. I will be heading the Ahmedabad office and will look after the firm’s corporate advisory practice while Tejas Karia will head the dispute resolution practice. We expect to see a steady growth in Gujarat”..The litigation practice would be led by Tejas Karia, Partner, who specializes in International and Domestic Commercial Arbitrations, Corporate Litigations, Information Technology Law, Real Estate Disputes, Securities Laws and General Corporate Advisory. Tejas was promoted to Partner in 2010 and will now divide his time between Delhi and Ahmedabad..Bar & Bench also spoke to Litigation Partner Tejas Karia. Tejas said, “We will try and build a strong base in Gujarat. There is lot of arbitration going on in Gujarat. I will focus on those matters and will develop a strong team to cater to Gujarat-based clients”..Tejas told Bar & Bench that he has an added advantage of working in Gujarat as he belongs to Gujarat and has practiced in Gujarat for almost three years before moving to Delhi in 2004..Tejas further said, “I think it is a great opportunity to be in Gujarat at the right time where there is a lack of presence of full service national level law firm. We want to replicate the kind of expertise and the knowledge base that we have in all the offices, in our Ahmedabad office”..At the launch, Pankaj (pictured left) stated, “In the absence of a structured full-service corporate legal advisory firm in Gujarat, Amarchand is set to provide the hitherto unavailable niche services from its diverse portfolio”. .The Ahmedabad office presently has 6-7 qualified lawyers with plans to expand its operational strength by taking this number up to 9 within the first year of operation..This office is the first step towards creating a pan-Indian footprint with Ahmedabad becoming the sixth city to hold an Amarchand Mangaldas office. Amarchand Mangaldas will soon be starting an office in Chennai to be headed by former Kochhar Partner, Dorothy Thomas, and also has plans to set up a Pune office in the near future.