The RSG top50 2019

India’s Legal Tigers emerge

Topping the RSG ranking of Indian Law Firms this year is AZB & Partners. However, there is a clear top tier of Indian law firms, which includes FOUR firms, AZB, Khaitan & Co, SAM and CAM. There is not that much to differentiate between these firms, they have different strengths but win the top mandates, gain the highest numbers of mentions and have significant resources. A close second tier of firms would include Trilegal, JSA and L&L Partners. Outside of this, stellar specialist and smaller more focused legal practices include Anand & Anand, Nishith Desai, S&R Partners.  

Notable risers and new entrants

Rising up the list of Indian law firms are: IndusLaw and Veritas (rising 10 and 12 places respectively). ELP, Link Legal, and DSK also gained ground.

Notable new entrants include Argus Partners, Dhaval Vussonji & Associates and ZBA.

Client satisfaction overall

Client satisfaction with Indian law firms has gone up marginally since 2017 (out of 15 surveyed indicators, the average scores given to Indian law firms have gone up by 0.23%).

Clients’ satisfaction with Indian lawyers’ is generally better particularly on availability, timeliness and conflicts, but their satisfaction with the quality of junior associates has actually fallen by 6%. This is reflected by the Indian managing partners reporting that their biggest challenge was recruiting and retaining quality talent.