Anticipating an imminent entry of foreign names and the increasing use of artificial intelligence, Indian law firms are going in for a makeover in accordance with global best practices. The bid to corporatise has seen induction of top non-legal talent across legal organisations.
Leading the charge are the old guard of India’s largest law firms including Khaitan & Co (KCo), Trilegal, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM), Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) and Luthra & Luthra. Some mid-tier and smaller players including Hyderabad-based Tatva Legal have also joined the game.
Balanand Menon, Partner and Head of Consulting at Vahura, a leading legal recruitment and consulting firm says the legal services industry is seeing a fundamental transformation in a market that is becoming intensely competitive, both from a business and talent perspective. “The multidisciplinary professionals who are being hired aren’t just nice-to-have additions—they’re strategic imperatives who drive innovation at the intersection of law, technology, and business operations.”
India’s top rated full services law firm Trilegal, which is already modelled as a corporate with no single person or family at the helm, has in the recent past hired non-lawyers into top corporate roles. Dhruv Nagarkatti, Head of Practice Transformation, brings with him a wealth of experience in legal technology and transformation from PwC, one of the largest accounting firms where he served as Director, legal business solutions. A former investment banker, Nagarkatti says Trilegal is now concentrating on taking in the right professionals at the right time.” A non-lawyer, Nagarkatti says, understands the business of law which, like any other business requires constant upscaling, adapting to digital transformation and strategising to keep pace with changing times.”
Trilegal has also roped in Avnish Kshatriya, global IT head at software giant Wipro, as chief digital & information officer in view of the critical need for AI-driven solutions. With a formidable experience of 26 years in digital transformation, his mandate at Trilegal is to focus on enhancing client service delivery though scalable digital capabilities. Most law firms fail at the last line adoption of digital technology which requires breaking barriers and changing mindsets and that’s where the expertise of a top professional like Kshatriya makes the difference.
Nagarkatti attributes the induction of non-legal professionals to the natural progression and evolution of the firm and says professionals bring a value-add to different key functions and while it involves investment in hiring them, they ultimately realise value over time.
A similar move to implement successful digital transformation has been undertaken by top-tier firm Khaitan & Co which has hired Rohit Shukla (co-founder of Legitquest) as chief digital officer, who drives digital and other tech related innovation within the firm.
As Menon of Vahura states, “The move underscores the need for professionals who can bridge the gap between law and technology. Today’s law firms must simultaneously create value for multiple stakeholders — clients demanding more integrated solutions, partners seeking sustainable growth, and fee earners requiring enhanced tools and support systems. Non-lawyer specialists have become instrumental in this equation.”
Human resource management is another critical focus area. Amar Sinhji, executive director, HR and member of the executive committee of KCo joined the legal giant after a 15-year stint in leadership positions with the Tata group. When he joined the firm a decade ago, there were just a handful of senior management professionals comprising mostly home-grown talent. “The situation today is completely different. The career, reward & recognition for a management professional in our firm is now at par with any multinational or large Indian conglomerate,” he says.
Of the 1,400 odd employees working at KCo, around a thousand are lawyers while 400 are in allied services. “We have CAs and MBAs as well as other post graduates / professionally qualified members from leading institutes working for us,” says Sinhji, adding that the firm may well start campus recruitment from the leading management schools in a couple of years.
Trilegal too has a key leadership position of Chief People Officer held by Parul Gupta, a management professional roped in from Microsoft. Gupta plays a critical part in aligning people management practices with organisational objectives, fostering an environment conducive to innovation. The firm has also inducted Deepti Chawla from Deloitte as head of strategy. “Such roles of mentoring & coaching and technology adoption are becoming increasingly important as firms redefine their talent strategies both to accommodate the special needs of a very demanding Gen Z and the cultural changes which will accompany the coming in of foreign law firms which will bring in the best global management practices,” Menon observes.
“A visible manifestation of this corporatisation of law firms from what were largely mom-and-pop shops into the giant full-service multi-disciplinary integrated one-stop shops for myriad legal verticals is the recruitment of non-lawyers into key positions in law firms,” says Pallavi Shroff, Managing Partner at SAM. “We are keeping pace with newer developments and challenges by moulding ourselves in sync with evolving global practices” she adds.
SAM, Shroff says, understood the importance of restructuring way back in the year 2000 and worked with top global management consultants with the objective of transitioning from a closely held family law firm to a professional set-up. The process needed continuous review as the firm grew and the last such review was done in 2023-24. “That resulted in induction of the next generation of partners into the management board while keeping family representation in a minority, a testament to our creating a lasting institution which can withstand the test of time,” she adds.
SAM now has a non-lawyer Amit Jaiswal as its chief operating officer who heads the business services team to enhance operational practices across finance, HR, administration and legal services. Each of the services are also headed by professionals. “His leadership is critical in ensuring that the business support services effectively and efficiently enable the lawyers of the firm to meet client needs,” Shroff avers. The firm has a strength of around 1200, of which 300 are non-lawyers.
Another firm which is switching from the family owned model to a professional legal firm is Luthra & Luthra. Rationalising the makeover, Managing Partner Harry Chawla says transitioning a family-owned law firm to a professionally owned and managed entity requires a shift in mindset, governance and operations to ensure long term sustainability and growth. Also, by prioritising professionalism over legacy, the firm can enhance its reputation, attract top talent and deliver superior client service.
The firm has a non-legal chief operations officer Lalit Vij who looks after the operational and management aspects of the firm. Leading law firm CAM too has recently appointed Padmini Rathore as chief revenue officer, bringing over two decades of experience in business strategy, financial management and organisational governance.
Hyderabad-based Tatva Legal, the largest law firm in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is headed by a former HR practitioner Mrinalini Reddy who has risen up the rungs to her current position as CEO of the firm. “At a time when the legal landscape is changing so fast, it’s high time we understand that law firms too need to be operated professionally as with any other commercial venture,” she quips. ”
Initially there was a disassociation between the lawyers and non-lawyer specialists since traditionally non-lawyers only manned support functions. “They were not used to non-lawyers coming in wearing leadership hats,” she recalls. Even today, senior lawyers at partner level in most law firms are busy handling tasks like billing, creating invoices and following up with clients for recovery.
“We have totally corporatised functions such as billing, HR, corporate communications and adopting AI driven technology changes as a natural progression. We believe these will create value addition for us in the market since we are freeing our top dollar resources, namely our lawyers, to focus on their core strength,” she asserts.