Phoenix Legal has hired Vasanth Rajasekaran as its 16th partner from Seth Dua & Associates in Delhi, where he had worked with co-founder Sunil Seth before his death in February 2017.

Rajasekaran specialises in international arbitration and also works on defence procurement and urban infrastructure work. The Delhi University LLB graduate, had previously been at Kachwaha & Partners from 2004 to 2009, before moving to Seth Dua.

He is joining Phoenix with senior associate Sukrit Seth and associate Saurabh Babulkar from Seth Dua.

Phoenix partner Manjula Chawla said that he was a “natural fit and addition to our projects and disputes teams”.

“My experience of handling international commercial arbitration and litigation combined with my specialised expertise in aerospace, defence, infrastructure projects, Government procurement and defence procurement will augment Phoenix Legal’s core strengths and complement its other practices,” commented Rajasekaran in the press release.

We have reached out to Seth Dua co-founder Atul Dua for comment.

In April we had reported that Dua was in the process of mediating with the late Sunil Seth's family over access to the firm's bank accounts.

Phoenix' press release added that Rajasekaran:

recently acted as the lead counsel on behalf of the Builders Association of India before the anti-trust regulator, which resulted in imposition by the regulator of the highest penalty till date (approx. US$ 1.05 billion) against leading cement manufacturers...

Vasanth has assisted the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs in drafting the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill and has also been nominated as a member of the core committee set-up by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for preparation of sub-ordinate legislation under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016. Vasanth has also been credited for drafting the first of its kind Financial Management & Procurement Manual for a sui generis socio-economic PPP project of Government of India.