Hiroo Advani joins Bharucha & Partners with 10 of his team amid poaching war

Hiroo Advani, a senior arbitrator and managing partner of Advani Law LLP has joined Bharucha & Partners along with 10 members of his team to head the latter’s arbitration practice. As a result, Advani & Co will shut its offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

Such moves are becoming increasingly common at top law firms because of a rise in corporate litigation and several regulatory changes.

Advani has represented some of the biggest global players in oil and gas, infrastructure, construction, and renewable energy. He has been involved in setting up several joint ventures and special purpose vehicles in high-stake project disputes, according to Advani Law’s website.

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He has also been lead counsel in cases of institutional arbitration at the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the SCC Arbitration Institute in Sweden.

Advani will work with Justin Bharucha, managing partner at Bharucha & Partners. The firm's current partners include MP Bharucha, Alka Bharucha, Justin Bharucha, Vandana Pai, Vishnu Dutt, Kaushik Moitra, Sneha Jaisingh, Swathi Girimaji, Parag Bhide and Vivek Mishra.

Advani also appears before Indian courts. Most recently, he was lead counsel in the Group of Companies Doctrine case, in which a Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, chaired by the Chief Justice of India, ruled that non-signatories to an arbitration clause were subject to arbitration proceedings.

He said, “B&P has consistently showcased remarkable expertise across practice areas, especially in arbitration… I believe we will set new benchmarks in arbitration.” Justin Bharucha said, “Hiroo’s unmatched experience in arbitration and as an arbitrator adds to MP’s vast experience and Sneha’s leadership.”

Bharucha & Partners has a total of 160 lawyers, and offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. According to its website, its clients include Fortune 500 companies, multinational corporations, public sector undertakings, banking and financial institutions, government and state authorities, and various nonprofits.

War for talent

On 31 July Mint reported that senior corporate lawyers heading mergers and acquisitions, private equity, disputes and competition law at various firms were being snapped up by rivals at a rapid pace, leading to a poaching war among firms such as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, JSA Advocates & Solicitors, and Khaitan & Co.

Often the movers bring their entire teams with them, as most clients are loyal to individual lawyers or teams that handle their cases, and not the firms they work for. For instance, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas announced on 29 July that Manan Lahoty, a capital markets partner at IndusLaw, was joining the firm with a team of eight partners and 43 advocates.

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The same month, JSA hired Nisha Kaur Uberoi, who headed the competition practice at Trilegal. Uberoi, who looks at complex areas such as merger control, cartels, abuse of dominance, and the digital economy, brought two partners and 25 attorneys with her.

In June, Khaitan & Co roped in Avik Biswas and Vaibhav Bhardwaj along with their teams from IndusLaw to head their employment, labour, and benefits practice. Biswas joined as a partner in Bengaluru while Bhardwaj joined as a partner based in Noida.

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