Think of a scheme of amalgamation under sections 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013. Advocates draft the scheme and appear before the Tribunal. Chartered accountants prepare the valuation and the accounting. Company secretaries run the board and shareholder process and the filings. One client, three professions, one deadline.
The same is true of an acquisition, a listing, a restructuring or an insolvency resolution, where the resolution professional may be an advocate, a CA or a CS. In each case, the client rarely chooses all three advisors independently. More often, the first advisor appointed recommends the others.
Referrals follow trust
Professionals refer work to people they have worked with and trust not to embarrass them. That makes cross-profession relationships one of the most valuable things a practice can build. A CS practice known to the right transaction lawyers is introduced to boards. A CA firm known to the right company secretaries is shortlisted for valuations. A law firm known to the right CA firms is called when a tax dispute begins.
How to build those relationships well
- Map who you already work with. Most firms have more cross-profession relationships than they realise, scattered across partners.
- Invest in a few, deliberately. Three or four strong relationships in each profession are worth more than fifty loose ones.
- Share thinking, not just work. Joint roundtables, co-written notes on a new rule, and briefings for each other's teams build respect faster than lunches.
- Be excellent to work with on the matter. Every joint mandate is a live audition in front of the other advisors.
Staying within every code
All three professions restrict how work is sought. Referral fees, commissions and anything that looks like touting are out. The relationships that work are built on professional respect and the quality of shared work, which is exactly what the codes intend.
Where to begin
- List the matters from the last two years where another profession was involved, and who they were.
- Pick the relationships worth deepening, and name a partner for each.
- Host one small, closed discussion a quarter with advisors from the other two professions.
- After every joint matter, ask the other advisors what it was like to work with you.
The law that brought these professions to the same table is the reason Dialawgue opened on 29 August. The firms that learn to work well across that table will win the mandates that matter most.