Siddharth Raja, who was a co-founder of Narasappa, Doraswamy & Raja that later became Samvad Partners, will join Argus Partners in Bangalore as a senior partner and national executive director, with a remit to also oversee the firm’s Chennai practice.

The 1997 NLSIU Bangalore graduate and M&A and corporate specialist Raja is also joined in Argus Bangalore office by husband and wife duo Aditya Narayan and Megha Malhotra Narayan, as equity and salaried partners respectively.

Both are both 2006 NLSIU Bangalore graduates and co-founded Aditya Narayan & Co in 2014; they will be moving with a team, according to Argus’ release.

Argus' Bangalore office had to-date included two partners: Kumar NJ, who was promoted in March, and R Vedasagar, who had joined in September of this year from the finance industry.

Aditya Narayan specialises in dispute resolution and, according to his Linked-in profile, had also worked at Narasappa Doraswamy & Raja for a year in 2010, before moving to the Karnataka high court as an advocate for a year, and co-founding Raghavan Narayan & Ravikumar in Bangalore in 2013.

Megha Malhotra Narayan specialises in indirect tax and had worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for seven years before.

Raja commented in a press release:

I believe this is a key turning point in my close to 20-year legal career, especially since 2004 when I returned to India and then co-founded Samvad: (and its predecessor firm), which will continue to be in my DNA.

The move marks a well-thought through shift towards both a niche practice area as well as a continuing national and cross-border presence; a tremendous strategic advantage. There exists a golden opportunity to cater to the burgeoning practice area of start-ups as well as the early- to mid- stage venture capital eco-system; crafting and structuring investment transaction solutions for funds, HNIs and family offices, as well as exits for investors and for corporates.

In this I believe my joining Argus, with Aditya and Megha, will be a perfect fit, leveraging both teams’ inherent strengths and capabilities to deliver such solutions to our clients in a timely and effective manner.

I am also looking forward to the challenges of the leadership role in Argus.

Fellow Samvad co-founder Harish Narasappa said about Raja that “we wish him all the best”, but declined to comment further.

Aditya Narayan said in the press release:

Megha and I are both excited to be joining Argus Partners. For us, and our team, the merger acknowledges great synergies amongst our existing practice, Siddharth’s practice and experience and Argus well-established presence across India. We believe that our deep domain-expertise and entrepreneurial instincts will enable us to contribute significantly to the firm’s next phase of growth. At the same time, this merger will enable us continue to offer - and broaden our offering of - top-quality, efficient and meaningful legal advice and representation to our clients going forward.

Argus managing partner Krishnava Dutt added in a press release, dropping strong hints of a strategic and management shift at the firm:

Siddharth, who shall also be a member of the Firm’s National Executive Committee, will greatly strengthen the leadership at Argus Partners.

As Argus Partners enters a new chapter and embarks on the next stage of growth, Siddharth’s drive and passion for excellence and desire to consistently deliver the best quality of legal service seamlessly merges with the firm’s vision.

Aditya’s distinctive entrepreneurial acumen coupled with exceptional technical skills creates a special advantage for the firm in this new phase.

Megha’s indirect tax experience superbly compliments the Firm’s Indirect Tax practice at the threshold of the GST regime. Siddharth, Aditya and Megha share our core values and I am extremely excited to have them on board.

As reported today, Argus has also expanded in Mumbai by merging with P&P Legal to ramp up banking, finance and projects.