BackShroff brothers to split Amarchand Mangaldas into two by 1 April
Cyril Shroff will get Mumbai region of the firm while Shardul will handle the Delhi region
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Hyderabad: India’s largest law firm Amarchand and Mangaldas and Suresh A Shroff and Co.’s Delhi and Mumbai regions, managed by brothers Shardul and Cyril Shroff, respectively, have agreed to split into two firms by 1 April, said three people familiar with the matter.
News of the split was first reported on Monday by The Economic Times.
Cyril Shroff’s part of the of the firm, which includes the Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad offices, could be called Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, according to one of the three persons cited above. The person is a source close to Amarchand Mumbai. All three people declined to be named.
The Delhi region includes the Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Gurgaon offices.
Cyril Shroff declined to comment. Shardul Shroff did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The website Legally India reported on 22 December that Amarchand Delhi was in early-stage talks with lawyers in Bangalore and Mumbai to open offices there, in anticipation of a break-up of the firm in the ongoing mediation between the brothers although Shardul Shroff denied the report at the time.
Shardul Shroff filed a case in the Bombay high court against his brother Cyril and other Mumbai-based equity partners of the firm, with his counsel P. Chidambaram reading out parts of the will of the brothers’ late mother Bharati Shroff, who was the single-largest equity holder in the firm, and who had allegedly disinherited Cyril Shroff’s side of the family completely.
In court on 18 November, both sides agreed to continue their mediation over the future ownership of the firm and whether Bharati Shroff’s equity stake could be willed or whether they were subject to restrictions in a family agreement that envisaged equal division of the firm’s equity between the brothers.
Both parties had agreed to mediation presided over by former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna, senior counsel Harish Salve and Nimesh Kampani, founder and chairman of the JM Financial group, with the mediation deadline having been postponed twice so far.
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