Wragges benefits from helping ex-FoxMandal partner launch Delhi boutique

Ajit Mishra left FoxMandal in September and is planning to establish City Law Practice in the New Year. Wragges has provided non-financial support with technology and infrastructure and will also enter into a loose affiliation with the firm.

Mishra will focus primarily on corporate, commercial and IP work, and will start hiring gradually.

Wragges’ India practice head Baljit Chohan said: “It’s strongly based on a personal relationship – it’s an affiliation, it’s not a captive operation. We haven’t made any financial investments or anything like that.”

Chohan added that the tie-up with Mishra would enhance Wragges’ access to the Indian market. “Though I spend four weeks in India every year and some number of colleagues do as well, that takes us so far. We don’t really have the resources of a Linklaters or a Herbert Smith and so on to spend the time on the ground we’d like.

“So while I was happy for a period of time, I thought we’d really need to do something different - a different way of attracting Indian corporates. And by happy coincidence that was at the same time that he was also thinking about leaving Fox.”

Wragges will also continue working with its existing relationship firms in India, Chohan noted.

Mishra was appointed as head of FoxMandal’s London office in 2008 when the firm, then known as FoxMandal Little, became the first Indian outfit to launch in the City (4 February 2008). FoxMandal had merged with Little & Co in 2006 but the relationship broke down in 2009, resulting in litigation after attempts to rescue the merged failed (14 December 2011).

A version of this article first appeared on LegallyIndia.com