Former Paras Kuhad lawyers launch Vidhii Partners

Close on the heels of its merger with Hemant Sahai Associates to form PHA Advocates, Paras Kuhad & Associates has lost two of its partners and several associates, who have departed to launch their own firm, Vidhii Partners. The new firm was established last month by Manish Desai and Sowjanya Menon, who were previously partners at Paras Kuhad & Associates.

India Business Law Journal was told that Desai’s decision to resign was based on “disagreements over policy issues”. However, the former partner said his experience at the firm had been “wonderful and pleasurable”.

Based in Mumbai, Vidhii Partners has a core team of six lawyers and four supporting lawyers. Desai pointed to the firm’s dispute resolution expertise as its unique selling point. “Vidhii Partners is perhaps one among very few law firms to have real in-house litigation skill sets,” he said. “Most law firms today act as post-boxes and the real work gets done by special counsels engaged by them. This not only increases costs but also reduces effectiveness as the ability of counsels is limited by the time constraints and the limits of the briefing itself.”