S&R Associates has made an unprecedented double lateral partner hire, getting J Sagar Associates (JSA) partners Divyanshu Pandey and Arpita Garg to staff its banking practice in Delhi with a team of three, according to a press release from the firm, after their move was first reported by Bar & Bench.

The two hires as partner, with Pandey to head up S&R’s banking and finance practice, in-part fills the hole left after the departure of long-time partner Uday Walia last year to erstwhile Platinum Partners Delhi (besides banking, Walia also did corporate, M&A, private equity and capital markets work).

Pandey and Garg are also joined by associates Rishabh Bhojwani, Prerna Sachdeva and Shashwat Bhaskar.

Pandey focuses on banking, finance and restructuring, including structured finance, cross-border lending transactions, hybrid debt financing, project finance, acquisition financing, real estate finance as well as restructuring, enforcement and insolvency matters, according to S&R.

He is a 2000 Delhi University LLB with a 2002 BCL from Oxford University.

Garg is a banking and finance specialist, who does restructuring, insolvency, structured finance, real estate and trade finance, bond issuances and project finance, and advises financial institutions and borrowers, according to S&R. She is a 2006 Symbiosis Pune graduate.

JSA joint managing partners Amit Kapur and Vivek Chandy commented: “Divyanshu Pandey one of our Equity partners based out of JSA’s Gurugram office has decided to resign from the firm, to pursue other opportunities. He will be leaving effective November 6, 2020. Divyanshu joined JSA after returning from a long stint in the UK and has been with us for more than a decade. During his long association with JSA, he has made valuable contributions to the Firm’s growth.

“The JSA family wishes Divyanshu the very best and hopes he find success in his future endeavours.”

Rarest of rare

In September, S&R had promoted Mumbai-based litigation counsel Shahezad Kazi to partner, in the only partner promotion at the firm this year. And while the firm has paid bonuses, it has also frozen increments as many other firms faced with the Covid economic fallout.

Much as with partner departures - Walia was only the second partner to ever leave the firm, after Bhakta Patnaik joined Trilegal in 2016 - lateral partner hires are even rarer at S&R.

In 2017, S&R had hired its first lateral partner, Viral Mehta, alongside Sanjeev Adlakha as a consultant (Adlakha has since also become a partner at the firm).