start-up law firms

Former Economic Laws Practice (ELP) partner Deep Roy, whom we had reported to have resigned in March, has started up a boutique firm under the name Equilex, in the finance and sexy flavour-of-the-month insolvency space.

HSA Advocates has hired GS Associates Advocates & Attorneys founder and managing partner Geeta Saha as a partner in Mumbai, specialising in banking and finance, infrastructure, projects & energy, corporate finance and real estate.

DSK co-founding partner Satish Kishanchandani’s start-up is now live as Pioneer Legal in Mumbai, coming out of the gate with a partner promotion, a headcount of 20 fee-earners, 4 partners and plans for national expansion.

Anoma Legal, the firm started in May 2018, by an exodus of seven partners from K Law, has promoted five of its principal associates to partner level:Anisha Jayaram – Bangalore (corporate / PE)Aparnaa Bhalotia – Mumbai (corporate / debt)Apeksha Amin – Mumbai (real estate)Arjun Sharma – Bangalore (corporate / pe)Natasha Rao – Bangalore (commercial / corporate)

DLS Law Offices founder Dipti Lavya Swain, who was previously general counsel at Azure Power and partner at Luthra & Luthra, has joined HSA Advocates as a partner.

DSK Legal co-founding partner Satish Kishanchandani is leaving the firm with two corporate partners and their teams in the coming months.

Phoenix Legal Chennai head and partner Shadaan Mohammed Saipillai and tax litigator Arun Kurian Joseph have together set up local law firm Calibre Legal; Phoenix will shut shop in the city.

The TMT Law Practice half of the Bharucha & Partners merger partner, Arthe Law, has gone independent again in Delhi under original founding partner Abhishek Malhotra.

Praxis Counsel co-founding partner Hemant Singh has left the five-partner electricity and regulatory firm with the bulk of its fee-earners to start a new regulatory firm called Charter Law Chambers.

Vivek Daswaney, who had joined IndusLaw as a Mumbai partner in February 2017 from (pre-Link Legal merger) DH Law Associates, has gone independent to return to boutique roots.

Juris Prime Law Services, which was spun out of Kochhar & Co in 2015 by Hyderabad head and partner VVSN Raju, has promoted one freelancer and one of its principal associates to partner.

Two former Indian Angel Network (IAN) lawyers, Ankita Singh and Ajay Anand, and ex-Phoenix Legal senior associate Shikha Bhardwaj have set up a new law firm as co-founding partners to focus on giving start-up founders good legal advice, hoping to grow with the companies.

Mumbai-based Dipti Lavya Swain, who had been general counsel (GC) at Azure Power until around six months ago, has set up law firm DLS Law Offices.

Juris Corp partner Hitesh Jain and his team, as well as recently-exited J Sagar Associates (JSA) partner Ravichandra Hegde, are setting up a new law firm, with offices in Mumbai, Pune and Delhi.

NLU Jodhpur 2008 alumnus Anand Varma and his father Tarun Varma’s Delhi-based litigation start-up APT Legal has now opened offices in Mumbai, Allahabad and Jaipur, with more office openings in the offing.

Former Link Legal India Law Services employment law partner Raunak, whom we had reported in June to have resigned from Link Legal, is in the process of starting a new law firm.

HSA Advocates partner Aniket Prasoon will start up regulatory and infrastructure disputes and projects advisory firm PLA Advocates, with his team of two.

L&L Partners, formerly known as Luthra & Luthra, has hired two: Akshay Nagpal, associate general counsel of airline Indigo’s holding company, Interglobe Aviation Limited, is joining as a partner; HSK Legal founding partner Harish Kumar has joined as a partner designate.

The six-year-old technology and corporate law firm TRA Law, co-founded by partners Anirudh Rastogi and Jitender Tanikella, has dissolved.

Himanshu Goswami, the former senior vice president legal at India’s largest commercial real estate developer DLF Commercial Developers, has started up litigation and transaction law firm Treya Legal in Gurgaon, Chandigarh and Bangalore.