The boutique telecom, media, and technology law firm TMT Law Practice and New Delhi-based lawyer DP Singh’s DPSA Legal have come together to form Arthe Law, seeking to reverse the recent trend of difficult mergers in India’s law industry.
With an on-the-ground presence in New Delhi and Mumbai, Arthe Law will have a combined strength of 40 lawyers, including six partners. Abhishek Malhotra, managing partner of TMT Law, has been designated as managing partner of the new firm, while DP Singh, founder and managing partner of DPSA Legal, is named as senior partner of Arthe Law. There will be four more partners at the firm, including Kaushik Moitra and Sonam Gupta.
Internationally, the legal industry has seen some big mergers over the years, although such consolidation has been fewer and less amicable in India. Fox Mandal and Little & Co., Hemant Sahai and Paras Kuhad, Argus and Udwadia & Udeshi, AZB and Anup Shah, Rajani & Co. and Singhania & Partners, Singh & Singh and Lall & Sethi – all of these mergers have unfortunately been disrupted.
Beyond India’s shores, large firms have come together to form alliances and create behemoths, with thousands of lawyers in offices across the globe. A report by an international consultant stated that more than 80 mergers and alliances took place in 2016.
Most notable mergers in the past few years have been that of Dentons with Da Cheng to form the largest law firm in the world by number of lawyers: Herbert Smith merged with the Australian firm Freehills to form HSF, while Gowling has expanded after it merged with Wragge Lawrence Graham – itself created from the 2014 merger of Wragge &Co and Lawrence Graham.
