Environmental law specialist and Trust Legal founding partner Sudhir Mishra has joined Fox Mandal Little (FML) Delhi as a consultant to expand the firm's environmental law practice.

FML managing partner Som Mandal said that Mishra has entered into an exclusive arrangement with FML for rendering advice and assistance on matters related to environmental law both in litigation and corporate side.  

Mandal said: "Law firms in India don't have strong environmental law practices and we believe it is a big area to build a practice around.

"We would like to take [environmental law] as a strong practice area of the firm since we're doing a lot of infrastructure and power projects and all these involve environment issues. This induction is one of the steps taken to further strengthen the practice. With Mr. Mishra's expertise we'll bring in many others," he added.

Mishra will not join FML on a permanent retainer but will continue to run his litigation practice from his Barakhamba office in Connaught Place alongside working for FML, but he told Legally India that the arrangement would be exclusive in the field of environmental law.

Mandal commented: "He has his own firm at this time; we may merge sometime and that's when he may become a partner."

Mishra started his law firm nine years back and has since then advised individuals and companies on environment laws.  

He said: "In India, environmental law practice was not in focus before liberalization - more regulations have been brought in because of the economic position we're in today. Sustainable practices and projects have become increasingly possible in future with the prepositioning of environmental law."

"Nowadays, big companies and corporates want to understand the entire gamut of environmental lawyering, which would include impact assessment, environmental consultancy, prepositioning of environmental issues and dispute resolution," Mishra explained.

Mishra has worked with the Central and State Governments, non-Governmental organizations and heavily regulated industries in the sphere of environmental law.

FML is engaging his services for environmental litigations, corporate environmental issues, impact assessment and clearances of infrastructure projects, consensus building with key stake holders in large projects and international environmental issues with focus on climate change and carbon credits.