Intellectual property (IP) powerhouse Anand & Anand has merged its Mumbai office with the media and entertainment law practice of Priyanka Khimani, Khimani & Associates, taking on a new avatar in the city carrying both brand names, as Anand and Anand & Khimani.

Anand has 320 professionals, including lawyers, engineers and consultants, across India in Delhi, Noida, Chennai and Mumbai and just under 20 partners. However, the firm has had a relatively small Mumbai presence of around five lawyers, with Khimani’s Mumbai office also having a headcount of five.

From 1 July, Khimani’s firm will then merge into a single new partnership in Mumbai with the Anand brand, with her leading its Mumbai office.

Khimani holds a 2009 degree from Jai Hind College in biotechnology engineering and had worked as a television writer before graduating as a lawyer in 2012.

After leaving Mulla & Mulla in 2014, she set up her own practice focusing primarily on IP, media and entertainment work for musicians, artists and other celebrities, as we reported at the time when she had acted for singer Sonu Nigam.

Anand & Anand managing partner Pravin Anand commented in a statement: “We clicked instantly because of the clear synergy between Priyanka’s firm and ours. We see a tremendous scope to improve service delivery to clients who have long felt the need to work with a local firm that is backed by the solidity of experience and infrastructure of the main Anand and Anand firm and the geographic accessibility, association and expertise offered by a professional firm like Khimani & Associates”.

Senior partner Binny Kalra, who will act as a “mentor for the merged entity” added: “We are raring to go, to make the new Mumbai entity the next big thing with our combined energies. I also believe that in addition to our combined IP services Anand and Anand & Khimani will fast expand into some key non-IP spaces as well for which the ecosystem is ripe”.

Khimani said in the statement: “It just felt like the right move, at the right time. We share a common, grand vision for the Mumbai practice and its growth, and our combined resources and strengths will help us achieve it.”

We have reached out to Khimani for further comment and will update the story when we get through.

The merger was facilitated by legal consultancy Legal League Consulting, whose founder and CEO Bithika Anand commented: “This is a unique merger and will set a precedent. The new partnership firm merging the Mumbai office operations of Anand & Anand with Khimani & Associates will go a long way in sustaining synergies, leading them to tap maximum potential of business growth in Mumbai.”