Khaitan & Partners' new office space of 3,000 sq ft is located in the Shakespeare Sarani business area, which is almost 5km from its previous office of 1,800 sq ft.

The office's sole partner Niloy Pyne said: "In Kolkata most law firms are in an area near the High Court, which is quite an embarrassment actually. My feeling was we should start in a proper place where there are proper commercial establishments."

Next to Pyne, 17 other lawyers are based in Khaitan & Partners' Kolkata office of whom around half had been recruited since setting up in October 2008.

However, he added that he was not looking to grow in size beyond 25 lawyers in the near future, with most of the additional office space being used to build and expand the firm's library.

Khaitan & Partners predominantly handles real estate and mining work, said Pyne, admitting that the corporate deal flow in the city is limited.

"You'll find that Kolkata is way behind the other main cities and even the political situation here has been deteriorating over last year or so," he said.

But Pyne added that although the market was currently stagnant he was expecting investment in 2010 and 2011. "I am sure that in next couple of years thing will change for the better."

Khaitan & Partners was set up only in October 2008 in a partial profit-sharing arrangement with Delhi-based Suman Khaitan & Co.

Suman Khaitan & Co was started in 2004 by Khaitan & Co's former Delhi managing partner Suman Khaitan.

Pyne had started up the Khaitan family-name branded office under licence from Suman Khaitan & Co, after joining with a small team from Kolkata firm Paras Kuhad & Associates Advocates where he was a partner.

Amarchand Mangaldas, which also has an office near Kolkata's business district, lost its only Kolkata partner Krishnava Dutt in June, replacing him with Delhi partner Kalpataru Tripathy.

Legally India's message board is hosting a discussion about Kolkata's legal market and whether there are any jobs available.

Photo by: Dipanker Dutta