Saikrishna & Associates has hired Viacom18 Media senior vice president legal Thomas George and one team member to head it up to open up a Mumbai office, while also promoting five associate partners to partner, expanding its total partnership to 18.

George has joined as a partner with Tanvi Sinha, who was part of his team at Viacom18 and has joined as an associate partner.

The five new partners are:

• Nitin Sharma (criminal and civil litigation)
• Aarshia Behl (IP litigation)
• Saurabh Srivastava (broadcast regulation)
• Dhanashree Deoskar (commercial, TMT)
• Sneha Jain (IP litigation)

With George and Sinha, Saikrishna has now opened an office in Mittal Towers in South Mumbai’s Nariman Point.

George, a 2004 Amity Law School graduate, had worked at the Chambers of PV Kapur and Anand and Anand, before joining Luthra & Luthra in Delhi from 2008 to 2013 (where he had worked with Saikrishna partner Ameet Datta).

In 2013 he had joined Viacom18 as an associate vice president in its Mumbai legal team, where he became vice president legal in 2015, and senior vice president legal in 2017.

Sinha is a 2009 SLS Pune graduate who had worked at Universal Legal, Kochhar & Co and Star India before joining Viacom in 2013.

Managing partner Saikrishna Rajagopal commented: “The office will allow our firm to leverage its substantial talent and ability in Mumbai. The new office will deliver value to our clients in Mumbai and this fulfils our long-standing aim to establish a strong litigation and advisory presence in Mumbai.

George added: “Saikrishna & Associates has established itself as a standout brand in the IP, TMT and allied sectors. I have known Sai and Ameet [Datta] for some time now and this move is very organic for me.

“I have worked with law firms for most of my career but heading different portfolios in-house has given me a deeper understanding of client commercial expectations, which I am sure will now aid me to serve clients more holistically. I am confident that the firm will rapidly mark its presence and keenly look forward to working closely with our clients based in Mumbai.”

Rajagopal added: “Thomas and Tanvi bring considerable experience and expertise to the table particularly for our media clients. After adding strong non-IP practices on the Anti-Trust and Corporate law side, this expansion is the next step to establish the firm on a national scale.”