Four-year-old IP and disputes boutique firm TMT Law Practice merged in Chennai with disputes firm APR Associates, inducting APR founder A Prabhakara Reddy as its fourth partner on Sunday.

The firm now has two partners, including TMT Chennai head Rajesh Ramanathan, two associate partners and five other lawyers in Chennai. Ramanathan said that while he has been practicing for 16 years, APR founder Reddy has 37 years of practice experience and would bring in expertise in general civil and property law too.

Reddy had founded APR Associates 10 years ago, according to a firm announcement.

Ramanathan commented: “When we started the Chennai office the idea was to cover the entire spectrum – the north and south [of India] – from the two offices [the other office being in Delhi]. This is not common. Firms start offices [in the South] in Bangalore and Hyderabad but not in Chennai. They come to Chennai in the end.”

“But Chennai is the southern head for intellectual property [IP], with the trademark office and the patent office and the intellectual property appellate board also headquartered in Chennai. The Madras high court is a chartered high court by the British, which still has original jurisdiction. As far as litigation is concerned Chennai has always played a very important role in the judiciary. So we thought this was the best place to start because we are more into litigation. Three years in town and we merged with APR which also has a similar kind of practice. We will be in a better position than before to serve more clients.”

Reddy was not reachable for comment at the time of going to press.

Ramanathan said that the firm also planned to open up offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad within eight months.

TMT Law Practice was founded by Abhishek Malhotra who heads the firm in Delhi which also has partner Kaushik Moitra.