Indian law firm SNG & Partners has opened an office in Doha, its second outside its home country, and also beefed up its first international outpost in Singapore with the addition of associate partner Kshitij Dua.

Partner Amit Aggarwal said that two lawyers from the New Delhi office – Rahul Kumar and Aditya Vikram Dua – have been relocated to the new Doha office, which will be bolstered by the additions of an English counsel and a local law counsel. A partner from one of the India offices will also be sent over soon to head the Qatar operation, which means that SNG could conceivably have a five-lawyer team there in the next couple of months in addition to Aggarwal, who will be visiting Doha frequently.

Financial services has been SNG’s strong point, and that will be the Doha office’s main focus, according to Aggarwal. Additionally, the expansion into a new geography also has its advantages. “We are unique among Indian firms in that we are able to create a ‘corridor’ linking India, Singapore and the Middle East,” he said. “This will allow us to service clients looking at India from both Southeast Asia and the Gulf region.”

SNG has also doubled the full-time headcount of its Singapore office by adding Kshitij Dua, who joins partner Rahul Sud there. Sud had been the sole permanent representative of SNG in the city-state since the firm opened its office last year, although Aggarwal himself has been splitting his time between firm’s New Delhi and Singapore offices.

Dua joins from Singapore law firm Straits Law, where he was a foreign legal counsel. He previously worked with ICICI Bank in both India and Singapore.