Panindia Legal has launched an office in Mumbai to be headed by former Indialaw senior partner Premlal Krishnan, who had first co-founded Indialaw as Sreeji & Law.

The firm was founded in Bangalore in October 2015 by former Intel South Asia senior attorney Biju TM as a law firm to fill the gap for legal services in tier 2 and tier 3 Indian cities.

Biju commented: “The idea was to provide services like that of Amarchand [Mangaldas] at 60% of the fees they charge. [Before starting up] we interviewed various start-ups and found out what they want. Everyone wanted niche services and said that they have [engaged] law firms located in metro [cities] or tier 1 cities of India but no support in tier 2 and tier 3 cities so if one firm can take care of operations on a pan India basis that will be great.”

He told us that the firm is currently acting primarily on consumer cases in 150 jurisdictions and its services are available across 400 Indian districts, through a team of 6 partners and 15 lawyers who liaison with local lawyers and big law firms that clients engage.

The firm's practice on contracts is its biggest source of revenue, consumer litigation brings in 20%-30% of the firm's revenue and also comprises around 30% of the firm's mandates, and real estate work comprises the remaining practice with 10% attributed to other litigation, he said.

“We have our consumer cases across all these jurisdictions, then we slowly move into [acting on the same clients’] contracts and other matters, even power projects,” he said.

Panindia launched a Mumbai office after it felt the need to have greater control over the jurisdictions in which it is acting.

Krishnan, who joined from Indialaw in August 2017, and partner Mayur Bhat, who practiced independently before joining Panindia in July 2017, will be based in the Mumbai office.

Biju said that the Bangalore office was greatly responsible for coordinating its support services across all the districts in which the firm's services are available, but Panindia's clients outside Bangalore felt the need to hold meetings with its lawyers in their own cities as well.

Keeping this need in mind, the firm launched in Mumbai and plans to follow the move with Delhi, Kolkata, Kochi and Baroda offices by the end of 2017.