Start-up firm V Law Partners has taken on two new self-starter equity partners and tripled its office size, only a little over half a year after ALMT Legal partner Vivek Daswaney had set out on his own.

Transactional and real estate sole practitioner Mrugank Shah and litigation lawyer Ajay Basutkar will both be joining V Law as equity partners.

Shah started up his own practice in April 2009 after spending three years at Desai & Diwanji and completing his solicitor’s articles at Junnarkar & Associates.

Basutkar had worked with Daswaney at ALMT Legal and set up an independent litigation practice around the same time that Daswaney founded V Law in September 2009. Both co-operated with each other under an informal referral arrangement.

Shah said: “I’ve always wanted to really start something on my own so that in a couple of years I can create something for myself and it would be a good achievement.”

I’ve known Vivek [Daswaney] since quite some time and we’ve been talking [about merging] for about more than six months.”

Daswaney (pictured) said: “We all come from the same mindset and family background and have the same passion to make it on our own. None of us have a background where we can infuse a large capital base to start with.”

Hiring salaried partners was therefore out of question, he explained, and the best way to attract independent lawyers to do quality work was to offer equity shares.

He added that Basutkar and Shah both had five to six months months of balance sheets, which showed that they could do work on their own. “All three of us had this thing to leave high pay packet and all three had this entrepreneurial streak.”

At the moment, it is understood that all three partners have invested equity stakes in the firm, although these are not equal. Final profit sharing mechanisms would be worked out as the practices’ cashflows stabilised in future.

The two new partners join Daswaney and four associates.

V Law has also moved into a new office of around 1,000 square feet, which has enough space for 14 workstations.

It is located in Mumbai’s Churchgate area on New Marine Lines, which is very close to V Law’s previous office which only had space for around five workstations.