Until now DLA had run its India practice without any formal practice heads, involving a team of around 10 core India-group partners jointly responsible for strategy.

Sharma, who joined DLA in 2010 from German independent Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, explained: “What's new is that Bis and I have the explicit task to bring everything together and coordinate our India practice for outbound business for Indian clients as well as inbound business."

Chatterjee, who became a DLA partner in 2011 having joined in 2008 from Allen & Overy, added: "This will give us much more momentum, of course, in relation to India - Tony Angel, our senior partner, has been one of the key drivers of our India strategy."

Under the new system Chatterjee and Sharma would report to the firm’s global management board, via Angel, who joined in 2011 and is also DLA’s global co-chairman alongside Nigel Knowles. Angel was previously managing partner at Linklaters.

A group of around 180 lawyers at DLA are understood to work on India-related matters from time-to-time. However, Angel is the only core India group member on the firm’s board.

Sharma is dual English and German qualified and specialises in litigation, dispute resolution and regulatory work.

Chatterjee, qualified in New York and India, having graduated in 1997 from NLSIU Bangalore, is a corporate partner with a focus on M&A, capital markets, private equity and corporate finance.

DLA’s Indian clients have included Etihad Airways, Wipro, PCM Group, Mahindra Group and HCL Infosystems on the corporate transactional side, and Coal India, Rolta and Power Finance Corporation in capital markets.