- Asia
- Lateral moves
- M&A, Regulatory
Meher Mehta has joined Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas as a partner in its corporate and M&A practice, Bar & Bench reported on 22 October. She spent the past decade at S&R Associates, joining as an associate in 2016 and leaving as a partner. Before that, she worked at Link Legal.
Mehta has more than 12 years of experience in corporate and M&A work, including mergers, joint ventures, foreign investment, cross-border deals and listed-company transactions. Her sector experience covers real estate and REITs, technology, logistics, healthcare and infrastructure, including airports and telecommunications. Managing Partner Cyril Shroff said her experience would "further strengthen our market-leading corporate practice."
Mehta's move follows Rohan Jain and Kshitij Arora from SAM to CAM
Mehta's hire follows several recent corporate-partner arrivals at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. In September, Rohan Jain and Kshitij Arora moved with their team from Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas's New Delhi office to CAM's corporate practice as Delhi-NCR partners, Bar & Bench reported. Hiral Motta also rejoined the firm as a corporate partner, Bar & Bench reported.
Partners have also been moving in the other direction. On 12 October, four CAM corporate partners, Ravindra Bandhakavi, Amarta Roy, Srabanee Ghosh and Poornima Singh in Bengaluru and Delhi, joined Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas's general corporate practice after leaving in July, Bar & Bench reported. SAM has added 13 partners this year, Law.com reported. CAM promoted 18 lawyers to partnership on 1 May, including eight in corporate, its largest group, Bar & Bench reported.
India M&A value up 31% to $86.9bn in H1 2026 lifts corporate demand
The hiring follows activity in the deal market. M&A value in India rose 31% to $86.9bn in the first half of 2026. The second quarter accounted for $66.9bn, the highest quarterly total since the second quarter of 2022, NewKerala reported. The first quarter recorded 710 deals worth roughly $20bn, the second-highest quarterly volume on record, Grant Thornton Bharat reported. The third quarter added 255 deals worth $13.2bn as dealmaking broadened, Business Standard reported.
Mehta's sectors, real estate, technology, logistics, healthcare and infrastructure, are among the most active in that market. Her corporate and M&A practice is also where CAM has added the most partners, with eight corporate promotions in May and the arrivals of Jain and Arora.
BCI rules keep domestic M&A mandates with Indian firms like CAM
Regulation affects which firms can compete for this work. The Bar Council of India's revised rules of 13 May 2025 allow foreign lawyers and firms to advise on foreign and international law through registration or on a 60-day fly-in, fly-out basis. They still bar permanent offices and Indian-court work, leaving domestic M&A mandates with Indian firms, India Briefing reported. CAM has expanded to nine offices, including GIFT City, Bar & Bench reported, and has a Singapore foreign law practice led by Vivek Kathpalia, ThePrint reported.
Equity partners at India's Big Five can earn between INR 1 crore and INR 10 crore or more a year, depending on their book, iPleaders reported. The iPleaders data indicates the pay stakes behind partner moves.
S&R Associates keeps promoting partners as Mehta departs after a decade
S&R Associates had roughly 170 lawyers, including 44 partners and counsel, as of September. The firm has continued to build its partnership, Bar & Bench reported. It designated Shiv Bhargava, Kanika Khanna and Prateek Sharma as retained partners in October 2025. It added Saumya Kakar in Mumbai in June and Apurv Sharma in September.
Mehta leaves a firm where she progressed from associate to partner over ten years. She is moving to a larger firm; a smaller elite transactional practice continues to compete with the Big Five for senior talent.
Across 2026, corporate and M&A partners have moved between India's largest firms as deal volume reaches multi-year highs and regulation reserves domestic transactional work for domestic firms. CAM and SAM have exchanged corporate partners in both directions this year, and both have continued adding partners to the practice where they are growing fastest.
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