Ex-SBI Capital Markets chief of compliance and legal PR Ramesh and Platinum Mumbai senior associate Yogesh Chande set up Prism last month as co-partners.

They are yet to fill their junior ranks of fee-earners albeit having taken on 800 square feet of office space in Nariman Point’s Mittal Tower.

Ramesh told Legally India: “We believe there’s a big gap in specialist capital markets advisory and also typically all the M&A transaction-based advisory work.”

Chande said that Prism would focus primarily on securities laws and capital markets, the commodities market and projects finance too.

Ramesh added that the firm would look to be “everywhere” in the capital markets space, including acting on initial public offerings (IPOs), qualified institutional placements (QIPs), as well as doing some advisory and corporate M&A work.

Chande was a senior associate in Platinum’s securities law practice from December 2008, before which he worked at Centrum Capital, Ambit Corporate Finance and ICICI Securities.

Between 2001 and 2003 Chande was a senior executive officer at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Until 2005 Ramesh was at the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) where he had held positions as chief of the corporate finance division, chief of the chairman’s office and chief of the international division.

In 2005 he joined SBI Capital Markets where he was chief of compliance and legal.

Both are qualified lawyers and company secretaries.