Abhinav Kumar, who led Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ capital markets practice for the Western region, has jumped to Talwar Thakore & Associates, the latest in a string of high-profile departures from the top-tier Indian law firm.

Kumar’s departure follows the moves of CAM capital markets South co-head Vijay Parthasarathi and partner Vinay Sirohia to Trilegal, as well as top equity dealmaker Shishir Vayttaden’s transition to Khaitan & Co, accompanied by two other partners.

An industry expert who was previously at CAM says equity partners at family-held firms like CAM and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co are looking for firms that offer more attractive equity splits, more freedom to operate, and increased transparency in finances.

Firms like Trilegal and J. Sagar Associates have become attractive options owing to their target-oriented, point-based partnership equity models, which offer senior partners certainty and transparency in financial compensation, which the traditional firms still lack, the expert said on condition of anonymity.

Kumar will be the first equity capital markets partner at TT&A. He has over 16 years of experience advising on initial public offerings, follow-on offerings, rights issues, QIPs, preferential issues and secondary trades. He also regularly advises merchant bankers on risk analysis and SEBI-related advisory.

"We are thrilled to welcome Abhinav on board as our first equity capital markets partner. We are confident that his expertise will enhance our ability to serve our clients across the entire range of capital markets transactions,” said Kunal Thakore and Gautam Saha, TT&A’s joint managing partners, in a statement.

With Kumar’s hire, TT&A has 27 partners across offices.