Legal recruitment and talent management company Vahura recently launched a survey in a bid to find out the best Indian law firms to work at.
The Best Law Firms To Work – Survey 2018 covered over 1200 professionals (representing more than 10% of all law firm lawyers), across 140 unique firms. Lawyers were asked to rate their law firms based on parameters such as Culture, Firm Leadership, Satisfaction, Pride, Rewards and Recognition and Work-life Balance.
Law firms were divided into three categories – Law Firms (Above 200 professionals), Law Firms (Below 200 professionals), and Law Firms (Boutique). Each firm was ranked exclusively based on the detailed analysis of anonymous responses of professionals who took part in the Vahura survey.
J Sagar Associates emerged as the winner of the Above 200 Professionals category, followed by Khaitan & Co. and Trilegal.
In the Below 200 professionals category, Keystone Partners topped the ranking, followed by Bathiya Legal and PDS Legal. GameChanger Law Advisors ranked highest in the Boutique category, with The Law Offices of Nandan Kamath and Obhan & Associates coming in second and third respectively.
Below are the winners of each category in the individual parameters:
| Above 200 | Below 200 | Boutique | |
| Culture | JSA | Keystone Partners | GameChanger Law Advisors |
| Firm Leadership | JSA | Bathiya Legal | Law NK |
| Satisfaction | JSA | Bathiya Legal | GameChanger Law Advisors |
| Pride | JSA | Keystone Partners | Law NK |
| Rewards & Recognition | JSA | Keystone Partners | GameChanger Law Advisors |
| Work-Life Balance | JSA | Keystone Partners | GameChanger Law Advisors |
In addition to this, Obhan & Associates was rated the best law firm for women, followed by Nishith Desai Associates and Samvad Partners.
Vahura also compiled the Lawyers Choice Rankings, which is purely based on the top three preferences of lawyers with respect to firms and partners in their corresponding practice areas. Below are the top 3 firms (in alphabetical order) in each practice area:
| General Corporate/M&A | AZB & Partners | Khaitan & Co. | Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas |
| Litigation | Agarwal Law Associates | Khaitan & Co. | Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas |
| IP | Anand & Anand | K&S Partners | Saikrishna & Associates |
| Banking & Finance | Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas | J Sagar Associates | Talwar Thakore & Associates |
| Real Estate | DSK Legal | Khaitan & Co. | Wadia Ghandy |
| Tax | Khaitan & Co. | Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan | Vaish Associates |
| Projects & Project Finance | Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas | Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas | Trilegal |
| Competition | AZB & Partners | Khaitan & Co. | Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas |
| Capital Markets | Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas | Khaitan & Co. | Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas |
The rankings also feature the top three highest rated partners (ranked in alphabetical order) in each category.
| General Corporate/M&A | Ashwath Rau (AZB) | Cyril Shroff (CAM) | Zia Mody (AZB) |
| Litigation | Mahesh Agarwal (Agarwal Law Associates) | Pallavi Shroff (SAM) | Sanjeev Kapoor (Khaitan) |
| IP | Pravin Anand (Anand & Anand) | Safir Anand (Anand & Anand) | Saikrishna Rajagopal (Saikrishna & Associates) |
| Banking & Finance | Aashit Shah (JSA) | Dina Wadia (JSA) | Sonali Mahapatra (TT&A) |
| Real Estate | Dhaval Vussonji (Dhaval Vussonji & Associates) | Dhawal Mehta (Wadia Ghandy) | Sajit Suvarna (DSK Legal) |
| Tax | Deepak Chopra (AZB) | Tarun Gulati (PDS Legal) | V Lakshmikumaran (L&S) |
| Projects & Project Finance | Akshay Jaitly (Trilegal) | Jatin Aneja (SAM) | L Viswanathan (CAM) |
| Competition | Nisha Kaur Uberoi (Trilegal) | Pallavi Shroff (SAM) | Samir Gandhi (AZB) |
| Capital Markets | Manan Lahoty (Luthra & Luthra) | Prashant Gupta (SAM) | Yash Ashar (CAM) |
The findings also included the top three upcoming law firm partners (arranged in alphabetical order) in each field.
| General Corporate/M&A | Kunal Chandra (Trilegal) | Shishir Vayttaden (CAM) | Yogesh Singh (Trilegal) |
| Litigation | Anuj Berry (SAM) | Anupama Hebbar (Keystone) | Dhruv Dewan (SAM) |
| IP | Anusuya Nigam (Singh & Singh) | Aparna Kareer (Obhan & Associates) | Priyanka Khimani (Anand & Anand & Khimani) |
| Banking & Finance | Anjana Potti (JSA) | Kannan Rahul (Trilegal) | Roxanne Anderson (AZB) |
| Real Estate | Denzil Arambhan (Wadia Ghandy) | Malini Raju (JSA) | Sagar Kadam (DSK Legal) |
| Tax | L Badri Narayanan (L&S) | Rajesh Simhan (Nishith Desai) | Sachit Jolly (DMD Advocates) |
| Projects & Project Finance | Ajay Sawhney (CAM) | Avirup Nag (IndusLaw) | Neeraj Menon (Trilegal) |
| Competition | Abir Roy (Seetharaman & Associates) | Ravisekhar Nair (ELP) | Shweta Shroff Chopra (SAM) |
| Capital Markets | Abhimanyu Bhattacharya (Khaitan) | Aditya Cherian (Khaitan) | Varoon Chandra (AZB) |
Read the entire report here.