DSK Legal has opened up in Pune, taking its national presence to four offices. The Pune office will be headed by Mumbai corporate partner Narendra Dingankar and will cater to corporate and real estate clients.

DSK co-founding partner Satish Kishanchandani told Legally India that while the Connaught Road Pune office was opened four months ago, the firm relocated one lawyer from its Mumbai office and started hiring locally two weeks back.

“The idea was to make sure that the same Bombay [office] culture is followed in Pune. Clients in Pune want Bombay service in Pune, so that’s the key,” he commented.

Kishanchandani said that the firm’s main clientele in Pune is in the real estate sector and in bricks and mortar, and that the firm was servicing them from Mumbai with the help of technology for some time but eventually client needs grew for “face to face meetings” and for “someone who could address issues immediately”.

Kishanchandani added: “The market [in Pune] is different. It is growing but it doesn’t need a very big office. The tendency is to go to Bombay or Delhi offices for big transactions even for Bangalore and Pune clientele.

If we’re going to do real estate work locally or work for local tech companies the fees are going to be different, while the fees are going to be the same [as in Bombay] for work that we’re doing in Bombay.”

Dingankar said that he will, at present, shuttle between the Mumbai and Pune office of the firm. Kishanchandani said that the firm hopes to grow a team of around five lawyers in Pune, including manager Pritha Jha and senior associate Anupam Shukla in the corporate practice and senior associate Bhushan Panse in real estate and litigation, all of whom have work experience in the Mumbai office, according to a firm statement.

Picture by Kuldeep Negi