Lateral partner recruitment in the Indian legal market continued in the past month, with firms including Kochhar & Co, Samvad Partners and Chandhiok & Mahajan bolstering their ranks.
Real estate expert Nishant Arora has joined Kochhar & Co as a partner in Delhi from Lumiere Law Partners. He has experience in the sale and lease of residential, commercial and industrial properties, joint developments, title verifications, encumbrance search, local land laws, land use, financing, zoning regulations and other statutory approvals and licenses. Before his time with Lumiere, Arora was at PDS Legal.
Samvad Partners has recruited disputes attorney Aditya Bhattacharya as a partner in Delhi from Agriya - Chambers of Law, a firm he co-founded in January. With more than 13 years of experience, he advises on disputes, including trust and estate litigations and litigations-related indirect taxes. He represents clients before all levels of courts, including the Supreme Court. Before establishing Agriya, Bhattacharya worked for Lakshmikumaran &Sridharan for over a dozen years and became a joint partner in 2017. Samvad recently lost two partners in Bengaluru: Anisha Shroff and Pinaz Mehta.
Noida-based IP boutique Sujata Chaudhri IP Attorneys has welcomed Pradeep Bhupatiraju as the head of its patent department from Altacit Global. Bhupatiraju advises on patent searches, drafting, prosecution and litigation to clients in telecom, electronics, software, automobile, engineering, medical devices and textiles. Before joining Altacit Global in 2021, Bhupatiraju ran his independent practice in Hyderabad.
Real estate lawyer Sirisha Sampat has joined SNG & Partners as a partner in Mumbai after about a year of independent practice. With more than two decades of experience, she advises on real estate-related matters, from due diligence to documentation and transactions. Sampat was a partner at Kanga & Company from 2013 to 2022.
DMD Advocates has added tax lawyer Shashank Shekhar as a partner in Delhi from Trilegal. With more than two decades of experience, he advises clients in sectors such as oil and gas, mining, technology, broadcasting, banking, telecom, power, pharmaceutical and hospitality, mainly on indirect tax-related litigations. Shekhar represents clients before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court. In June, DMD lost Delhi tax lawyer Rohit Garg to Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, and more recently, cross-border transactions partner Sumit Sinha joined Phoenix Legal.
Chandhiok & Mahajan has landed disputes specialist Himanshu Vidhani as a partner in Mumbai from Khaitan & Co. He advises on disputes, including strategy development, commercial and investment, as well as insolvency. Vidhani worked for Khaitan from 2014, prior to which he was at Wadia Ghandy & Co. He becomes C&M's second lateral partner hire this year after the firm added Shafaq Uraizee Sapre as Mumbai managing partner.
