The constituent firms of Singh & Singh Lall & Sethi, a merger that lasted a little less than two years, have decided to part ways. The two firms – Singh & Singh and Lall & Sethi – had merged in 2015 to create an IP Power House, which will now be going separate ways for “business reasons”.

Chander Lall, Managing Partner of the merged firm, has applied for senior designation and that seems to be the main reason why the two firms are separating. Confirming the decision to part ways to Bar & Bench, Lall said,

“Since I have applied for senior designation, it would have become difficult to run such a large team without a strong leader.

And more than that there were business reasons for making this decision. However, the two firms will continue to cooperate.”

The four partners from Singh & Singh – Sudeep Chatterjee, Bitika Sharma, Tejveer Singh Bhatia and Saya Choudhary – who had merged with Lall & Sethi, will now move to a new premises reverting to their original legacy.

Sudeep Chatterjee said,

“In view of the fact that Mr. Lall wishes to move on and do counsel practice, we have decided to revert to our original position. Both firms will continue to be ‘best friends’.

Having been one of the top most firms, conflicts had become an issue. Client interest is paramount.”

Tejveer Singh Bhatia further said,

“Singh & Singh will go to newer heights and will remain a top firm for telecom, broadcasting litigation…”

Laughingly, he added,

“…Aviation and cyber law.”

Pratibha Singh had set up Singh & Singh along with her husband Maninder Singh in 1997. Both Maninder and Pratibha are designated Senior Advocates, while Maninder Singh was appointed as an Additional Solicitor General in 2014.

Set up more than 20 years back as a proprietorship firm by Chander Lall, Lall & Sethi moved to a partnership model in 2013 and later merged with Singh & Singh in 2015.