Juris Corp has converted to an equity partnership model beyond just the founders, converting its five salaried partners to equity partners to the firm.

The new equity partners are Arunabh Choudhary, Avikshit Moral, Nand Gopal Anand, Pratish Kumar and Shubhabrata Chakraborti (see more details on new partners below).

“It’s true equity. We will of course have measures of periodical evaluation but it’s pure equity, not eat what you kill,” he added, in that founder equity was substantially the same as the new partners’ equity, though different in terms of quantities.

“It’s not gonna be all of us equal [equity percentages] on day one, but we’ll get there. The founders still have majority and hopefully – this may sound odd – not for too many years.”

That said, this is not the first time there were equity partners beyond the two founders: Mustafa Motiwala, who had left for erstwhile Clasis in 2014, had also been an equity partner at Juris Corp, Jayesh said.

Good with bad?

Equity partnership in a firm is generally seen as desirable by fee-earners, who are keen to own a part of the firm that they are helping build.

That said, the good can too come with the bad, as co-owners of a business may also have responsibilities (read, potential liabilities).

“We are confident that even if it goes badly we have the strength to absorb it. We’ve been working on this for months, we felt this [coronavirus] is not the reason to delay it. We will deal with it as it comes,” he said.

“We are quite confident, even if things were to go South – we will still be able to see it through without having to re-work anything,” he added, noting that the firm did have reserves. “We’ve had some good years so we’ll be able to manage everything.”

Practice split

Juris Corp used to pretty much be a niche financial services boutique and powerhouse, with banking and finance making up the majority of billings.

Chakraborti heads disputes and the other two equity partners are transactional: corporate M&A and commercial are respectively headed and co-headed by Moral, while fintech is headed by Choudhary – despite the name, the department deals less with banks than with technology clients, according to Jayesh.

“The last few years there has been a significant shift we’ve managed to achieve,” said Jayesh. “It took longer than we thought but we are on the road to having reoriented ourselves.”

The above is despite the short-lived merger with the practice of former ALMT Legal partner Hitesh Jain, who had joined in April 2018 with a team of nearly 30, but went independent again by November of that year to start Parinam.

New partners / co-owners

In a statement, Jayesh commented: “This move builds upon the blueprint created by the firm’s next level of leadership for accelerating the firm’s growth. The owners are driven by value creation, which has steered the firm on the path of continuous growth and excellence.”

Juris Corp’s second co-founder Talat Shah, who with Jayesh had been the only equity partners in the firm at the time of this restructuring, added: “This collaborative approach is a testimony of the firm’s outlook for growth and diversification. It will also show the way ahead for Gen Z.”

Arunabh Choudhary is a dual qualified M.B.A, LL.M. gold medallist from the National Law University, Jodhpur; batch of 2010. He is also a Company Secretary credential holder. Arunabh started his career with Juris Corp in 2010 in the Securities team, Mumbai, after having interned with Juris Corp in 2009. Over the years Arunabh has worked in the areas of General Corporate practice, Competition Law, M&As, Funds Practice, Start-Ups and FinTech. Since 2017, Arunabh heads the Firm’s PE & Fintech practice. He also heads the Bangalore office.

Avikshit Moral started his career in 2008 and joined Juris Corp in 2014. Over the years, Avikshit has worked extensively in the areas of Real Estate, Commercial Laws, Private Clients, M&As and Commercial Disputes. Avikshit currently heads the Firm’s M&A practice and co-heads the Firm’s Commercial Laws practice.

Pratish Kumar started his career in 2008 with Juris Corp, after having interned with Juris Corp in 2007. He moved to J. Sagar Associates in 2012, and re-joined Juris Corp in 2017 and is based out of Mumbai. Over the years, Pratish has worked in the areas of banking, trade finance, project finance, securitisation, regulatory, and restructuring. Pratish besides co-heading Banking, heads the Finance Practice.