RSG Law firm Rankings 2013: Amarchand tops the chart; Khaitan moves up to tie with AZB; Top firms score lower on client satisfaction; Smaller and Newer firms preferred

RSG, a London based research and consulting firm has come out with this year’s ranking for top 40 law firms in the country and a report on the Indian law firms and the legal market.

Amarchand Mangaldas continues to top the law firm rankings followed by AZB & Partners, and Khaitan & Co, both of whom are ranked second. J. Sagar Associates has been pushed down to the fourth position.

Over the last couple of years Khaitan & Co has moved up quite rapidly, giving serious competition to the top two firms. Khaitan has scored higher than both Amarchand and AZB in client satisfaction. According to the RSG report, in the sampling of 100 major clients chosen at random, Khaitan was the second most mentioned law firm, reflecting the growth in the volume of work it handles. Another interesting aspect related to Khaitan & Co is the fact that it has 57 Partners and 300 lawyer while Amarcand has 69 Partners and 600 lawyers.

Luthra & Luthra Law Offices maintains the same position at number five while Trilegal has dropped one position and is ranked number six. Last year, Trilegal had ended their five-year referral agreement with magic circle law firm, Allen & Overy.

Interestingly, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Nishith Desai Associates, S&R Associates and Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) are tied at the same position at number 7. TTA, Platinum Partners, Hemant Sahai Associates (HSA) and Economic Laws Practice (ELP) have made a big jump this year and have moved up several notches as compared to last year’s rankings. TTA has moved up from rank 19 to 7, Platinum from 19 to 11, HSA from 35 to 18, and ELP from 19 to 12.

The RSG report states, “Client satisfaction with the larger and more established law firms in India has dropped as they struggle with the challenge of growth”, which is one of the most important observation of this Report.

Surprisingly, the top law firms; Amarchand, AZB and Luthra score 7.83, 7.84 and 7.79 respectively in client satisfaction, while the newer firms S&R and Platinum score 8.93 each with Phoenix Legal scoring 9.33. Trilegal scores the highest amongst the top six firms in client satisfaction with 8.55 points.

The Report states, “Availability, timeliness and budgeting were areas where the top firms often fell far behind smaller and newer competitors in the eyes of clients.”

Foreign purchasers of legal services are beginning to drive changes in the law firm pecking order by instructing smaller and newer firms such as S&R Associates, Platinum Partners and Phoenix Legal, according to the report.

Another big change that we can see in this year’s Rankings is that some of the prominent law firms have dropped several places in the ranking chart. DSK legal, Bharucha & Partners, Crawford Bayley & Co and Dua Associates have drastically moved down the order with smaller and newer firms taking the lead and making a place in the middle order.

The report also states that firms with a specialist practice area focus like Nishith Desai Associates, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan, Vaish Associates Advocates, and Anand & Anand continue to do well in the rankings.

The new entrants to the list are Link Legal, Singhania & Partners, Seth Dua & Associates, Krishnamurthy & Co (K Law), and Mundkur Law Partners.

The report also states that the average partner growth for the top six law firms was 24% between 2011 and 2013 and the large law firms “grapple with maintaining client satisfaction as they undergo rapid growth”.

The RSG rankings are based on a total score of 40 including capacity, profile, quality of mandate and client satisfaction derived from 35 different data sets, weighted and ranked based on RSG Consulting’s Top 40 Indian Law Firms methodology.

*Headcount numbers based on RSG research and estimates. All other headcount figures supplied by the law firms.

**TOTAL Score out of 40 is the sum of weighted and banded scores for CAPACITY (/10), PROFILE (/10), QUALITY OF MANDATE (/10) and CLIENT SATISFACTION (/10). Scores against the four indicators are not shown. They are derived from 35 different data sets, weighted and ranked based on RSG Consulting’s Top 40 Indian Law Firms methodology.