Karanjawala promotes Samarjit Pattnaik to Partnership; Pattnaik becomes second Partner in firm’s criminal practice

Delhi-based litigation firm, Karanjawala & Co has promoted Principal Associate Samarjit Pattnaik to Partnerhip. Pattnaik now becomes the second Partner in the firm’s criminal practice branch, which was earlier overseen by Partner Sandeep Kapur..A graduate of Symbiosis Law School, Samarjit started his professional career with Karanjawala in 2002 and has been with the firm ever since. In 2007, he completed an LL.M. from Cardiff University, following which he rejoined the firm..Karanjawala Managing Partner Raian Karanjawala confirmed Samarjit’s promotion and said,.“Over the years we have found our criminal practice has been growing exponentially. It was felt that the time had come where the depth and the quality of the practice would best be serviced by having an additional partner.”.On his promotion Samarjit commented,.“I came to Delhi to live my parent’s dream – as my father is a senior Advocate in the Odisha High Court and my mother always wanted me to practice in Delhi. My entire learning progress in the field of litigation has been in this office with the help and support of all my past and present seniors and colleagues and most importantly Mr. Raian Karanjawala and Mrs. Manik Karanjawala.” .“These 13 years in Karanjawala & Co has been really wonderful and exciting in terms of professional and personal achievements”, added Samarjit..A partner promotion is not the most common of occurrences in this firm. In August 2014, the firm had promoted Debmalya Banerjee to partnership making him the seventh partner in the firm. In an interview with Bar & Bench, the firm’s founding Partner Raian Karanjawala said,.The policy of the firm has been that partners are made few and far between. In my office, people don’t become partners only because they have put in so many years or have billed a particular amount.It’s an amalgam of many things. First, your personality and your fit have to be right for the firm because the firm has a certain character and a certain blend and you should be in consonance with it. Two, the timing has to be right because so far as the firm is concerned, we are in it for long haul and it is not a valuation game that we are 15 partners and worth so much. So partners are made in a very calibrated way..With Samarjit’s promotion, the firm now has eight partners including Partners Raian Karanjawala, Manik Karanjawala, Nandini Gore, Ruby Singh Ahuja, Sandeep Kapur, Meghna Mishra and Debmalya Banerjee.