The former Mumbai founding senior associate of Associated Law Advisers Ashu Thakur has set up a boutique SME start-up law firm with a France desk.

She started the firm two months ago as Ashu Thakur & Associates (ATA), having hired two recent graduates of Government Law College Mumbai, one of whom is also qualified as a company secretary.

"I wanted to start up a firm for a long time," said Thakur (pictured). "A lot of people are looking into the market so I think it was the right time to branch out and do your bit."

In a year's time, she said she would hope to be at a size of five to seven lawyers.

She said that ATA would initially focus on advising small and medium enterprises (SME) on corporate commercial work and advise clients in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), insurance and infrastructure sectors.

Thakur said she has also started to try and prepare the way for initial public offering (IPO) instructions, although this would still be a while off.

"We do a lot of compliances for companies and advising a lot of start ups and private companies that are considering doing IPOs in one year's time - security compliance and a lot of cleaning up work," she explained.

Thakur is a French speaker and has therefore launched a French desk at her firm, which aims to attract inbound investment from French companies.

"Speaking French gives a comfort level to French clients," she noted.

Thakur was an associate at ARA Law between 2001 and 2005 and then started up a Mumbai office for Delhi-headquartered firm Associated Law Advisers.