We caught up with Trilegal co-founder Anand Prasad, who will leave the firm to become an arguing counsel and potentially a politician, Legally India reported earlier this morning.

Prasad will become a counsel and enter politics (but not the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with which he parted ways in itsearly days on disagreements about its approach.

We asked him a few questions by email about his plans.

What’s your exact plan?

Plan is to move into counsel practice by 1 April, 2017. Being in counsel practice would give me flexibility to seriously pursue my political/social inclinations.

How will you make it work as a counsel?

The thought is to be a corporate/commercial practitioner, and hopefully to be instructed by firms/lawyers that need assistance in that space.

Am also hoping to contribute to social issues by representing clients in that space, but this would not include PILs, which I believe have increasingly become an abuse of process.

In this phase am also looking to spend some of my time providing pro bono assistance to serious start-ups and other lawyers/firms with the wider commercial/managerial skill set I might have.

What will you do in the politics space?

My sense is that there is space for a political thought that leans in favour of a free market economy (with adequate regulators in place to minimize abuse), where the state uses the surpluses generated through the economy to benefit the general population and the underprivileged.

My sense is also for the state to enable material growth in the context of bringing a wider happiness quotient - i.e. a pursuit of economic growth factoring in the need to bring comfort, happiness and harmony in the population.

So why are you leaving?

It is difficult to be politically and socially active within the structure of a commercial law firm.

Client expectation of a top notch firm leans in favour of political neutrality.

Hence, if I had to become politically active, it would have been very tough to do so within the confines of a commercial firm. Hence, the thought of transitioning to counsel practice.

How will it be dealt with logistically internally?

The hope is for the transition to be smooth from a client and firm perspective.

Over the last year, I have already brought other partners into projects am supervising.

Another year of the same would hopefully get most clients comfortable.

In any event, even as external counsel, I will always be available to assist Trilegal and its clients.