Platinum Partners rebranded itself as ‘Touchstone Partners’ with effect from November 1st, 2020. The firm’s history dates to 2002 when Karam Daulet Singh started the firm as ‘Daulet-Singh & Associates’, after working for several years with a leading international law firm in London, in order to bridge the gap between Indian and international law firm working styles and overall client experience. It was then rebranded to Platinum Partners in 2008. 

Commenting on the recent rebranding exercise, Karam Daulet-Singh, said, “Leading up to our rebranding, Vinod Dhall, former chairman of the Competition Commission of India, merged his practice with the firm and joined us in February 2019 as a senior competition / antitrust advisor, and Uday Walia, a highly regarded and versatile lawyer, joined us in May 2019, as a partner in our transactions group.  With the recent joining of Ruchir Sinha, a well-known and exceptionally capable lawyer, to relaunch and head up our Mumbai office, we felt that the time was right to rebrand, in order to reflect the old and the new within the firm.”  

Touchstone Partners is preferred counsel in India for several Fortune 500 corporations, sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors and financial sponsors, and has worked on some truly ground-breaking transactions. In relation to the rebranding, Karam said, “With this significant move we now have world-class expertise and experience in fund formation, structured finance, dispute resolution, corporate/M&A, PE and antitrust’. 

Ruchir will set up the Mumbai office and will be joined by his colleague Shreyas Bhushan who has worked with Ruchir on transactions such as GIC’s investment in the setting up of the GIC – IRB InvIT (first unlisted InvIT), GIC’s investment (alongside Brookfield and British Columbia Investment Management Company) in the Reliance Tower InvIT in order to acquire JIO Telecom Towers (USD 3.2 billion); as well as advising GIC in its co-investment into India Grid InvIT alongside KKR (USD 150 million). The duo has also advised GIC in its investment in HDFC (USD 800 million), Godrej Properties (USD 150 million); Capital First (USD 140 million), and most recently Prestige Properties (USD 100 million). They have also advised Investcorp Bank plc, Bahrain in its acquisition of IDFC’s real estate and private equity asset management businesses (AUM USD 500 million). Ruchir has also been involved in advising Brookfield, Mapletree, SUN Group (London), and Investcorp in the setting up of their fund vehicles for funding various investment strategies.  

On his choice to move to Touchstone, Ruchir said “After many successful years at NDA, my only criteria in considering another law firm were clients and culture. Touchstone’s impressive international clients that include sovereign wealth funds, Tencent, Wellington as well as their healthy relationships with strategic clients and international law firms requires them to deliver an international level of work product, which is at a scarcity in the Indian context.”  

Adhitya Srinivasan, who has previously worked with Ruchir at NDA, has been roped in to bolster the firm’s private funds practice. Adhitya is a Harvard Law graduate and has worked in London with Herbert Smith Freehills and, more recently, Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett. 

Karam said, “With Ruchir joining, the focus will be to enhance our ability to provide a truly integrated service across the country through our offices in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru.”