Ashok Kumar Mishra, former Kolkata debt recovery tribunal (DRT) presiding officer and former general manager legal of IDBI Bank, has joined Mumbai-based MDP & Partners (formerly M Dhruva & Partners) as a senior partner to head its banking practice.

This grows MDP to four partners.

Managing partner Nishit Dhruva, who had started the firm in 2010 after leaving from J Sagar Associates (JSA), commented: “Mr Mishra is an accomplished legal professional and has proved his expertise in tackling critical cases across the legal spectrum. He comes at a time when we are expanding our service portfolio and his association will enable us to scale the next level of growth.”

Mishra had begun his career in the Puri district court in Odisha in 1982 until 1987, dealing with civil, criminal and labour cases.

He then joined State Bank of India (SBI) as a law officer, followed by IDBI in Mumbai from 1995 until 2012 as general manager legal. In 2012 Mishra was appointed to the Kolkata DRT until February 2017, with a one year-stint at DRTs in Hyderabad too.

At IDBI Bank, he had dealt with corporate finance and recovery related matters pending before various high courts, and has specialised in matters of restructuring related to CLB, BIFR, CDR, winding up, merger and demerger and CLB/NCLT.