Exclusive: Phoenix Legal has opened a second Mumbai office in Nariman Point relocating its recently hired litigation partner and bulked up with Hariani & Co real estate and corporate partner Siddharth Hariani to expand to three partners in Mumbai.

The firm has started operating in in South Mumbai’s Maker Chambers V building last week with total space to seat 10 to 15 staff, Mumbai-based Phoenix co-founding partner Sawant Singh told Legally India.

The office’s litigation partner Jyoti Singh, who joined the firm in April from Dhir & Dhir, will be heading up the Nariman Point office with a team of four other lawyers, and will continue to focus on further building the litigation practice of the firm.

The practice had “really grown a lot of traction” in Mumbai, said Sawant Singh, who will continue to operate from the firm’s Lower Parel office.

At the beginning of this week former Hariani & Co partner Siddharth Hariani also joined the Mumbai office to take its total partnership headcount to three.

Siddharth Hariani specialises in corporate and commercial transactions with a particular focus on real estate, corporate, M&A and private equity work. “I have known these guys for some time now and we get along really well and the way we look at our futures and the way we enjoy working and the growth prospects, everything just matched. It was simple on that front,” he said.

He joined Hariani & Co in 2001 from GLC Mumbai and is the nephew of Hariani & Co managing partner Ameet Hariani. Siddharth said that he left very amicably, the family remained very close and he wished them all the best. Hariani & Co partner Madhavi Hariani commented that the firm wished him luck in his new role at Phoenix.

Sawant Singh said that following a number of associate departures over the last year at Phoenix the total Mumbai strength was now back up to 15 lawyers, making up a pan-India headcount of 40. “We intend to grow organically but we want to maintain that ratio – that partner to associate ratio – of four to five [associates per partner].”

He noted that finding lateral partner candidates had taken longer than expected. “The philosophy of our firm is that the partners work harder than our associates,” joked Sawant Singh. “It’s not an easy sell.”