DSK Legal is expanding its litigation team in Delhi with lateral hires from Paras Kuhad & Associates. Ravi Prakash (pictured right), presently a partner at Paras Kuhad along with his 11 associates has joined DSK Legal in Delhi.

Speaking with Bar & Bench on joining DSK Legal, Partner Ravi Prakash said, “We are moving in and joining from 1^st of March. Eventually a team of about 15 lawyers are joining with me from all walks, as they cover all legal forums in terms of banking, finance, Supreme Court, High Court, Competition Commission etc. I’ll say that our endeavor is to ensure that we are able to cover almost everything under the sun as far as litigation is concerned”.

Bar & Bench spoke with Managing Partner Anand Desai (pictured left) on his expansion plans for 2011, moving to a new office in Delhi and setting up a new office in Bangalore.

Speaking about expansion plans Managing Partner Anand Desai said, “We are finalising our new Delhi office as we have got a team of people joining us from Paras Kuhad. We will now have a fairly large litigation group and I’m finalising a place somewhere near the court. In January our Mumbai offices moved to Dhanraj Mahal (near Taj Mahal Hotel) because we wanted our litigation group office to be near the court. The rest of the main office is currently moving to Indiabulls (in lower parel) and this office is three times the space, we currently have”.

On his take on the market, Desai said, “We have very specific needs and we already have clients for litigation, in particular this group which is joining us from Paras Kuhad will be strengthening our litigation practice significantly in various courts and tribunals. There is also scope for growth in corporate and real estate work”.

Expansion Plans in Bangalore: Desai stated that he has finalised Bangalore and said, “As a firm we have been working with a person in Bangalore for the last five years fairly consistently, and I have finalised almost everything. Bangalore has been a place where we have been wondering when to start and now the right time has come for us. Hopefully, coming 1^st April we will have an office there”.

On the effect of the economy, Desai added on to say, “The economy is so big that the question is of understanding, what more we can do? I don’t believe any firm in India or a firm of our size has been adversely affected by the economy. A specialist in a certain area, yes could have been affected, like a real estate lawyer because the real estate market has been down. The big challenge for us, as a full service firm is the ability to handle various kinds of work more than the volume of work coming in. That’s where the international firms have succeeded in their ability to organise work optimally and that’s where law firms are lacking”.

Way forward for 2011: Desai stated that they expect further recruitments, in the near future and is looking to expand in other cities. They are also looking at strengthening their practices in Projects & Infrastructure and Capital Markets.

Team joining from Paras Kuhad & Associates: The eleven lawyers joining from Paras Kuhad are Aashish Anand Bernard, Abhishek Mitra, Anindita Roy Chowdhury, Avni Singh, Raunak Jain, Varun Agarwal, Varun Pathak, Vikrant Ghumare, Rahul Singh, Aditya Dewan and Puja Priyadarsihni.