Law firm J. Sagar Associates (JSA) has joined hands with city-based Vichar Partners to cater to the needs of Japanese investors coming to Tamil Nadu as well as corporate groups in the state, said a top company official here.
"With this merger, J.Sagar Associates will be a law firm of 290 lawyers. The merger does not involve any cash deal while two founders of Vichar Partners -- Vinod Kumar and Aarthi Sivanandh -- have been inducted as equity partners in the merged firm," Jyoti Sagar, chairman and founder of JSA, told reporters here Wednesday.
Asked about the method of valuation, Kumar told IANS: "There is no valuation. In our profession we do not own the client. Nor did we have any real estate. If you cite our order book position, then it is equally true that we also get a share of JSA's order book."
He said the Gurgaon-based JSA wanted a presence here and came up with the acceptable proposal.
The focus of the law firm in Tamil Nadu will be the corporate practice, said Kumar.
According to Sivanandh, lot of international trade happens out of Chennai but there is no major national law firm in the city.
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Sagar said dispute resolution, Competition Commission and regulatory and policy verticals are the growth areas for law firms in the country.
Queried about the growth trends for law firms, Sagar said with private sector being allowed in sectors that were monopolised by the government earlier, regulatory and policy segment has turned out to be an important space for lawyers.
Legal compliance and anti-corruption investigations are other promising areas, he added.
According to Bergis Desai, senior partner, dispute resolution/arbitration cases increase when the economy is down as there will be higher incidences of breaking of contracts.
On the billing trends, Sagar said it is mostly on fixed rate basis and not on hourly basis.
He said the law firm segment is still a nascent stage in the country and hence there is not much of a prospect for legal audit -- checking of law firms bills for overcharging and others -- now.