HSA Advocates partner Ramya Hariharan has re-started her briefly independent Kolkata-based law firm, Citadel Law Chambers, with five other fee-earners after four years at HSA.

Citadel would have an office in Kolkata but would also be working from home at the moment, she said.

“Though based in Kolkata we service clients across the country and are also servicing some international clients,” she added, noting that the firm would do both corporate and litigation work, as well as insolvency matters.

She and her team were currently involved in separate debt, equity and insolvency deals for Kolkata clients, some of which were listed, and all coincidentally in the manufacturing sector, Hariharan said.

“It is an interesting market,” she said about the city. “It is kinda of a tough market unless you’ve been there for some time.”

Getting new clients often required being locally known already by promoters and businesses, though fortunately her practice “has been here for some time”, she said.

Hariharan had been one of the co-founders of originally-Kolkata-based (now national more Mumbai-centric) firm Argus Partners in 2009, alongside Krishnava Dutt (which had merged, then broken up with Udwadia Udeshi in 2012 and 2014 respectively.

In 2014 she went independent again, under the Citadel banner, and in 2016 had joined HSA together with local Paras Kuhad Associates litigation partner Prateek Ghosh.

HSA managing partner Hemant Sahai commented: “We wish Ramya all the best.

HSA partner Pratik Ghosh continued as partner in Kolkata, he confirmed, adding that the firm had “no immediate plans to expand but [was] always looking out for opportunities”.