Vaish Associates has opened up a Bangalore office, hiring an ex-Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer and lawyer to help it to grow to 24 lawyers within a year in the city.

The office started operations yesterday (1 February) headed by K R Vasudevan and is intended to spearhead Vaish Associates' South India tax and corporate law practice.

Vasudevan joined Vaish from a Bangalore multinational. He is a lawyer, cost accountant and former Additional Commissioner of Income Tax.

Vaish Associates has entered into a leasehold term of three years for the said premises with a minimum lock-in period of one year. Vasudevan told Legally India that it has the capacity to accommodate 25 people with two cabins, one conference and pantry room and a reception area.

The new office is located in the Royal Arcade region of Koramangala Industrial Area in Bangalore.    

Vasudevan said he felt upbeat about the firm's prospect in Bangalore and that he would hope to open satellite offices in Hyderabad and Chennai in the months to come, after focusing on expanding the current team.

"We plan to hire 24 lawyers within a year's time - there is a lot of potential for growth here," he said. "Vaish is unique, we believe in giving personalised quality service and I would say that the best has arrived in Bangalore."

He added that Vaish would be looking to develop its direct and indirect tax and corporate practices in Bangalore. "I am very excited about the prospect of indirect taxes with GST [the Goods and Services Tax] in the pipeline."

Besides law and accountancy Vasudevan has experience in finance and banking, specializing in direct tax laws including transfer pricing, and indirect tax laws such as value added tax (VAT), sales tax and excise.

Vaish Associates has been expanding aggressively in the past year. The firm also has offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Gurgaon.