6 Asian Legal Business | October 2024 Even as lateral hires and mega deals dominate the headlines, Indian law firms are focusing on qualitative growth over mere quantitative expansion, emphasising client-centric approaches and strategic investments in technology, knowledge management, and talent development. The key to sustainable growth, they say, lies in superior service delivery, robust training programs, technological innovation, and client retention, rather than aggressive client acquisition. Our scaling strategy focuses on qualitative goals, and we do not believe in quantitative growth as an end in itself. In the last 18 months, our lateral growth has been largely through adding or expanding specific practice areas (capital markets, infrastructure and projects, and disputes) which we believe are critical to support our clients and also provide cross-selling opportunities across other practice areas. To that extent, we will continue to explore other specialist practice areas from time to time. Beyond this, our primary focus shall continue to be on organic growth through retaining, nurturing and developing our excellent pool of existing talent. The same is true of geographical expansion. While we have full-fledged physical offices in Mumbai and Delhi, we also have some of our lawyers present in Bengaluru with a view to ultimately developing a formal presence there. Our focus is to deliver excellent client service. To that end, we routinely conduct both practice-specific and inter-practice training sessions on a wide range of topics to ensure that our lawyers are up to date on developments and best practices. Simplification of the legal practice and scaling is at the heart of our Firm buildout plan in India. The foundation of this lies in having a client-focused approach and developing a strong collaborative work culture. With this foundation in place, one has to review and optimise client selection, adopt legal technology and invest in legal training programmes. The buy-in to scaling must be across all levels and primarily occurs when the talent pool is harnessed without exhausting them. The financial health of the Firm is key to enabling the leaders to take risks, adopt flexible billing techniques and roll out new practice areas. For one to embrace a growth mindset, one must also adopt a primarily data-driven decision-making process and lawyers must be open to measuring themselves on productivity scales. What has worked well for us in the Indian market is focusing on client retention over client acquisition. Setting highquality standards is key for growth to be sustained. Ultimately clients love good service and a high-quality output. The toughest part of scaling is to have the mindset to learn from your failures, and that is easier said than done. Our growth is driven by a client-first approach. We focus on understanding and addressing the evolving needs of our clients across areas like technology law, investment treaty arbitration, and private equity and venture capital. With offices in Bangalore, Delhi, and Kolkata, we have positioned ourselves to handle both national and international matters. We have embraced technology and innovation to streamline our work. One example is the in-house tool developed by our partner, Ajay Kumar, which uses AI to augment our legal workflow. This allows us to combine automation with expert insights for better client service. Our strategy also focuses on attracting and retaining top legal talent. We have noticed a shift where more lawyers are choosing boutique firms like ours over larger tier-one firms because of the opportunities for personal and professional development. We also provide customised guidance to young legal talent to help them develop their careers. We take pride in the fact that most of our new hires are those who have interned with us for a long time, which allows them to be productive from day one. Scaling strategies FORUM Gautam Saha joint managing partner, Talwar Thakore & Associates Shuva Mandal managing partner, Anagram Partners Anubhab Sarkar managing partner, Triumvir Law What are your strategies to scale your law firm in India’s legal market?
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