Before returning to India in July 2009, Iyer was an in-house lawyer at Oman's OMZEST Group in Muscat for four years. Prior to that she worked at the Bangalore bar for 18 years until 2004 with law firm Sreevatsa Associates and as a partner there from 1994. This was followed by a short stint in a Delhi firm.

At LawQuest, which specialises in general commercial, immigration and employment work, Iyer would initially focus on transactional work while gradually building up a litigation offering for the firm's current clients, she said.

Iyer joined LawQuest as a non-equity partner in mid-April, although she said she would be integrated into the firm's equity in due course.

LawQuest founder and managing partner Poorvi Chothani said that gradual expansion was on the cards for the coming years. "Just now we are happy with existing resources but we have already identified one more partner who will be joining us in June."

The firm now consists of two partners, three other lawyers and four support staff. Chothani said that she could see the firm growing to a size of up to five partners but did not want to move beyond that.

All of LawQuest's staff are women. Chothani explained that this was not by design, although she added that being a 100 per cent female firm had created a "different energy" in the office environment. "We have a happy bunch of people," she added.