Meanwhile, independently practicing advocates Sangeeta Bhaskar and Bhaskar AVV have joined Dua as salaried partners to take charge of the Hyderabad office.

Tadepalli said: “It has been considerably stable when it comes to the work on the real estate front. Maybe the market or the growth [in Hyderabad] would have been slow but we’ve had considerably good sized work. For the past three years since I’ve joined Dua major revenues have flown in from the real estate sector.”

She told Legally India that besides litigation and documentation there was a strong focus on real estate in Dua’s city office and that she was currently handing over her mandates to the new partners Sangeeta Bhaskar and Bhaskar AVV.

Bhaskar AVV practiced as an independent consultant for Dua since 2011, for regions other than Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. He graduated from Andhra University in 1995 and practiced independently until joining Dua on 15 June.

He said that the real estate sector in the state has recently experienced a slump due to local politics and state laws, but the firm was attempting to revive work in the sector.

Another four lawyers from his independent practice would also join Dua soon.

Sangeeta Bhaskar graduated as a lawyer from Osmania University in 2008 and ran her husband’s practice, Vimal B Bhaskar Law Offices. More than a year after her husband passed away, she joined Dua on 1 July bringing her team of four lawyers to Dua’s Hyderabad office.

Dua’s Hyderabad office currently has a team of 14 lawyers including the two partners.

In Hyderabad Amarchand Mangaldas replaced Tatva Legal lateral hire Rahul Sarella for its local resident partner Anshuman Jaiswal, who has relocated to Mumbai.

Dua Bangalore: Ex-JSA independent Vimla Pinto

Former J Sagar Associates (JSA) senior associate Vimla Pinto, who was running her independent practice VMP Law Chambers since leaving JSA in 2004, merged her practice with Dua in Bangalore on 1 July as equity partner.

She was previously with Dua from 1991 to 2001, when she left the firm as a retained partner.

Pinto has also brought her VMP team to Dua Bangalore but she declined to comment on the team size. VMP focused on insurance, real estate and litigation. Pinto will continue in the same vein at Dua, in addition to building up the media and entertainment practice – a new practice area for the office in the city.

“Because of the convergence of information, [media and entertainment laws] are in the process of evolving and I see tremendous potential in the sector,” she commented.

In February former Tatva Legal Bangalore co-founding partner Manoj Menon had re-joined Dua as an equity partner in Bangalore.

Dua Gurgaon: 1 lateral defence partner, including 2 Tatvas

Advocate Amit Cowshish joined Dua’s Gurgaon office on 1 January in its defence practice where three other partners are already working.

Cowshish is a former financial advisor (acquisition) and additional secretary and member of the Ministry of Defence’s defence procurement board.

Two other lawyers also joined the firm In Gurgaon: former Tatva Legal managers Anuj Trivedi and Siddharth Bhavnani rejoined Dua as managers.

In October Dua had launched a tax practice in Gurgaon after hiring former Deloitte Haskins & Sells tax director Ashutosh Mahajan and a team of five Deloitte chartered accountants (CA) and one former PricewaterhouseCoopers in-house lawyer.

In May former Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer independent consultant Priya Christian joined Dua as a retained competition partner, while retained litigation partner Robin David was made up into equity. Managers Nishant Srivastava and Nirvaan Gupta in the Singapore office and Alok Tiwari in Delhi were promoted to retained partner level.

Photo by Habeeb...second innings...