Murali Ananthasivan and Vivek Chandy will join JSA with a team of 16 lawyers, taking the total size of JSA's Bangalore to 33 lawyers and three equity and two salaried partners.

JSA Bangalore resident partner Sajai Singh said: "In terms of the growth and our presence its going to be phenomenal and it's going to propel us into a different league all together."

Singh started up JSA's Bangalore office 13 years ago and added: "Now the toddler is getting into its teens and it is the time it has more parents and more opportunities of growth. It will be a great teenage time for the Bangalore office and hopefully be a great adulthood."

Ananthavasivan and Chandy's start-up practice M&C specialised in corporate and private equity and the pair were among AZB's most well-known partners in Bangalore before they left around July of last year. Both will join JSA as equity partners.

AZB Mumbai partner Bahram Vakil said: "I think it's a good move for them and we wish them the very best."

AZB continues to maintain a presence of around 30 lawyers in Bangalore.

Ananthasivan and Chandy will join JSA's partnership from 1 July and JSA hopes to move into a larger office space in M&C's building within two months.

The merger discussions between JSA and M&C are understood to have begun at the beginning of June.

One rival Bangalore partner commented: "I have the feeling they left [AZB] and probably negotiated with lots of firms, looking around for suitors. And this helps them quite a bit - it is a good move."