Advani & Co has signed an agreement to merge with Pune-based corporate law firm Nehru & Co to form Advani Nehru & Co effective from 1 November. Advani & Co will keep its original name in Mumbai and Delhi since the merger is solely between the two firms in Pune.
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The new firm will have about 20 lawyers. Aradhana Prabhakar from Advani & Co and Amol Nehru of Nehru & Co will run its operations.
Ranjan Nehru, the managing partner of Nehru & Co, said that the tie-up would be mutually beneficial since his firm could profit from Advani’s Mumbai and Delhi presence and its expertise in arbitration and dispute resolution, while Advani could reap returns from Nehru’s prominence and corporate expertise in Pune.
Hiroo Advani said Nehru & Co was an ideal partner since his firm wanted to tap the Pune market and enlarge its footprint in the city. The firm will focus on a combination of corporate and litigation work. “Nehru & Co has been there for a long time and they have a very stable office with corporate work, so we thought it would be a good fit,” he said. “Pune has a lot of business and a lot of spillover work will come to us in Mumbai and Delhi. There’s a growing mid-market and a growing IT presence in the city, which are starting to use local firms, but there are only a handful of these firms.”
Ranjan Nehru said that in addition to IT, companies in the automobile and pharmaceutical sectors had also established a base in Pune. “Legal services should be at your doorstep,” he told India Business Law Journal. “This kind of need has been felt for a long time. Unfortunately there is no big consolidated professional service entity available in Pune. We have been doing this for some time but thought that it would be good to have a tie-up with someone who has a base in Mumbai and Delhi and elsewhere, as well as access to the international market.”
Ranjan Nehru hopes the merger will help improve service to clients in Pune, where the legal market has yet to mature. “Most of the lawyers here are conveyancing lawyers,” he said. “Only a few have any exposure to actual corporate work. That is something which is missing.”
The tie-up furthers Advani & Co’s efforts to beef up its practice. In 2011 it merged with Delhi-based litigation firm Accendo Law Partners.
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