MV Kini & Co has started a tax practice with the hire of start-up lawyer Shrikant Kamath as partner in Mumbai, while former in-house lawyer Ram Verma has joined the Hyderabad office.

Kamath, who set up Shrikant Kamath & Associates in 2010 after spending four years at Ernst & Young as a director, joined MV Kini last month.

He said he had 18 years of experience in taxation, having first completed his MBA in finance, and completed his LLB from Mumbai University’s Jitendra Chohan College of Law in 2004, and a PhD in customs and World Trade Organisation (WTO) law in 2011 from Mumbai University’s KC Law College.

At MV Kini he will advise primarily on direct and indirect taxes and WTO laws.

Corporate lawyer Verma joined as a partner in the Hyderabad office from the Middle-East headquartered Jumbo Electronics owned by the Jumbo Group, where he was in-house legal counsel.