Khaitan and Co. have a new addition to their real estate practice team with Dr. P.K. Agrawal joining them as a partner at their Delhi office. The addition of Dr. Agrawal seems to be an interesting choice for the firm, considering his vast experience as an IAS officer in the land reforms sector. Formerly, an Assistant District Magistrate and District Magistrate in West Bengal, he has held posts in the Departments of Environment & Forest, Law & Justice, amongst others, during his career.

Dr. Agrawal is a graduate of Allahabad University, and has obtained an LL.M degree from Calcutta University. He also holds a D.Phil in law from Allahabad University in addition to an MBA from the Indira Gandhi Open University, New Delhi. An author of several books on land laws and land reform, he has played an integral role in drafting the Information Technology Act and has taught at the Allahabad and Calcutta Universities.

Rabindra Jhunjhuwala told Bar & Bench, “Dr Agrawal will be based out of our New Delhi office and will head the real estate practice there. He strengthens our existing real estate resources across all offices and will be a great asset to our existing and new clients. This hire compliments our full service capabilities.” On expansion plans, he said, “We are always looking for people who share our vision to grow Khaitan & Co. After strengthening our corporate, projects, litigation and competition practices in Delhi our real estate team in Delhi needed a boost. We have a team but we did not have a specialist leader for this practice in Delhi. Dr. Agrawal complements our vision, need and his experience in the government sector is an added asset.”

Khaitan has hired Bharat Anand for their corporate practice from Freshfields, Prabjot Bhullar from AZB for Projects, Gauri Rasgotra returned after a 2-year sabbatical to their litigation practice and Manas Chaudhuri from J. Sagar Associates for their competition practice.

Former public sector officials are increasingly entering the law firm market. Given their expertise, experience and wide range of contacts, we can expect to see many more such appointments. Dr. Agrawal is only the latest in a long list of former public sector officials who have joined law firms, which includes Rashee Suri, Ashok Dhingra and Joginder Singh.