The 2017-founded Chennai-based start-up law firm VB Legal, which had been started by ex-J Sagar Associates (JSA) partner Varun Sriram and local independent practitioner Bhavya Sriram has rebranded to Commercial Law Advisors (CLA) after growing to three partners.

In 2019, then-Freshworks director legal Akshaya Suresh had joined the firm and is a partner, resulting in the 1 April re-branding away from the initials of the founders’ first names (despite identical surnames, they are not related).

According to a statement from the firm, the “new brand name moves us away from the partner name initialled firm name, and fittingly describes what we do”.

“Our aim, for now, is to remain boutique and continue to provide specialised and top-quality legal service to a select list of clients,” they added.

Corporate, M&A, real estate and technology have been the largest revenue drivers, said a spokesperson, though it was looking at expanding into other verticals.

In particular, CLA was hoping to focus more on advising start-ups, on privacy and data protection, private clients and media and entertainment work, as well as scale up real estate to allow it handling larger projects.

Commercial Law Advisors (CLA) currently has 12 fee earners including 3 partners.