Khaitan & Co Mumbai has hired J Sagar Associates (JSA) retained partner and infrastructure projects specialist Amitabh Sharma into its partnership, which is the third lateral partner hire the firm completed yesterday (1 April).

Khaitan & Co partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala said: “We have a large infrastructure team both in Delhi and Bombay. In Delhi it is headed up by Prabjot Singh Bullar. Amitabh is starting in Bombay and he’s a specialist – he just does infrastructure and nothing else.”

The Mumbai projects practice already includes partners Upendra Joshi and Sudip Mullick.

Sharma explained that his main focus was in infrastructure projects, particularly in the power generation space, although he has also been active in many other infrastructure fields such as ports, highways, transportation, water and waste management, as well as corporate takeovers and investments in the space.

He noted that in the infrastructure space there was not enough specialised legal expertise in India to deal with the potential pipeline of deals.

“If these sectors do not go full throttle, the India growth story that we’ve been talking about will just go down.”

Sharma had been at JSA since he joined as a senior associate in Delhi in 2005, prior to which he was an independent practitioner. He had been practising in JSA Mumbai for 18 months, where he was a retained partner.

Sharma explained that he joined Khaitan & Co because he wanted “better prospects, better positioning, and the ability to flex your arms and spread your wings.”

But he added: “I have nothing bad to say about JSA - what I am today is because of JSA, let’s face it. The fact is that I have had excellent relationships with the guys there.”

JSA told Legally India in a statement that it wished Sharma well.

Yesterday, Khaitan & Co also hired a partner to start up its banking and finance practice in Mumbai and a boutique law firm partner to create a technology and media and telecommunications (TMT) team.