NLS grads Shekhar Vyas, Anindita Phukan and Dinesh Singh set up Altum Law

Close to eighteen years after graduating from the National Law School of India University Bangalore, Shekhar Vyas, Anindita Phukan and Dinesh Singh have come together to set up ‘Altum Law’ with offices in Bangalore and Delhi..Presently, the firm has three senior partners (including Anindita, Shekhar and Dinesh), two partners (one litigation and one corporate) and eight associates across the two offices..Anindita is based in Bangalore while Shekhar and Dinesh are based out of Delhi. Dinesh says, “We have known each other for more than 20 years and we decided to take this forward. Each one of us compliments the other in terms of being what we are and in terms of our areas of expertise.”.Shekhar will be heading the firm’s taxation, litigation and dispute resolution practice..After graduating from NLSIU in 1995, he worked at the Chambers of Harish Salve and Arun Jaitley after which he joined Lakshmi Kumaran and Sridharan and worked there for eight years specializing in the Indirect Tax. Thereafter, he founded SVA Law and has been practicing under that banner since then..Anindita has over 17 years of experience and her area of focus will be corporate and commercial laws specifically in M&A, PE and foreign investment areas. She graduated from NLSIU in 1996 and joined ICICI Bank. She later moved to J. Sagar Associates and worked there for about four years. A short stint at AZB & Partners was followed by a move to Poovayya & Co. as a Partner in 2004..In 2010, Anindita started her own firm under the banner ‘Phukan & Co’ but a year later she moved to Khaitan & Co after which she joined Hyderabad-based law firm Tempus Law to set up the Tempus’ Bangalore. office..Talking about her decision to leave Tempus and set up Altum Law, Anindita says, “My experience with Tempus was very good. Although it was a difficult decision to leave Tempus but I had always felt the need for setting up my own practice in Bangalore and when the opportunity came and I met Dinesh and Shekhar, I thought the time was right and the people were right.”.She resigned from Tempus in September 2013 to set up Altum Law along with Shekhar and Dinesh..Dinesh too graduated in 1996 along Anindita. He has previously worked at Fox Mandal after which he co-founded IndoJuris where he worked for nine years before setting up Altum Law. Dinesh does a lot of corporate work with a focus in aviation matters majorly working on aircraft financing both domestic and cross-border..Talking about the expansion plans Anindita and Dinesh say, “We are looking to set up an office in Mumbai at the earliest,”.Anindita added, “We are also looking to expand in other cities in India as well as looking to expand in South East Asia where we have a sizeable amount of work. These may not necessarily be the financial hubs in South East Asia but areas where there is demand for niche expertise. We will formalise it in future depending on jurisdictional issues.”.“The firm is also looking to hire more lawyers and we plan to expand our team of lawyers in next few months”, says Dinesh..Dinesh and team are quite excited about this new venture and he says, “We have a great team on board and we all will have a good time and we are looking forward to move to the next level soon.”.On asking how different their firm is from other breakaway law firms, Anindita says, “We have niche practice areas including expertise in commercial arbitration, taxation and aviation apart from the usual corporate and commercial work, which I think will be an advantage for us.”