Majmudar & Co will follow its clients and move from South Mumbai to a larger office in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in North-Central Mumbai, as the firm has hired Little & Co corporate partner Shreyas Patel with one associate.

Majmudar has taken a five-year lease on 7,500 square feet of the Naman Centre's sixth floor in BKC's G Block in Bandra East.

Little & Co partner Patel has joined Majmudar in the corporate practice focusing on foreign direct investment (FDI).

Patel said: "We are in the growing mode: We are shifting to Bandra Kurla Complex and the plan is to grow. It's an up-and-coming firm with young individuals with the same mindset."

Patel had been with FoxMandal's Mumbai office since 1999, which then merged into Little & Co's office in 2006 after FoxMandal and Little & Co entered into an arrangement to create the FoxMandal Little brand.

Little & Co managing partner Ajay Kathwala confirmed Patel's departure.

Patel and 33 other Majmudar fee-earners are due to move to Bandra on the weekend of 20 March out of Nariman Point's Free Press House.

Five lawyers in Majmudar's litigation practice will be moving to the firm's existing Flora Fountain office, which is near to the Bombay High Court.

Majmudar managing partner Akil Hirani said: "Basically, I guess we are going where the business is going. Most of our banking clients are all slowly but surely heading to the BKC zone and a lot of our corporate clients are there or beyond."

"From what we understand and having spoken to a number of real estate consultants and businesses alike, everyone is recommending BKC," he added.

Hirani explained that the BKC area was actually effectively more expensive than office space in Nariman point. "When you do all the mathematics, Nariman Point gives you better carpet to built-up ratio and rents per square foot are more or less the same."

"If you look at Rupee to Rupee value it may appear that BKC is cheaper, but when you do the mathematics the efficiency [of floor use] in Nariman Point works out higher."

The usable 'carpet' area in Majmudar's new BKC office is around 6,000 square feet, which Hirani said would be enough to grow to 50 lawyers.

"Primarily we are on a pretty high growth path and [Patel] will hopefully be one of many more senior level lateral hires," he noted. "The business tide has clearly turned in the last six to eight months. We are trying to beef up and go to the next level."

Several Mumbai firms have moved North of Nariman Point in the past year or procured additional space in South Mumbai.