Former Nishith Desai Associates Funds and Tax Co-heads Siddharth Shah and Bijal Ajinkya respectively have joined the Mumbai office of Khaitan & Co..Former Nishith Desai Associates Funds and Tax Co-heads Siddharth Shah and Bijal Ajinkya respectively have joined the Mumbai office of Khaitan & Co, as first reported by legal website Legally India..Siddharth will join Khaitan & Co as a Corporate and Funds Partner while Bijal will join as Tax and Funds Partner wtih effect from February 18, 2013..Siddharth joined NDA in 1996 and worked there for more than 16 years before leaving to join Khaitan. He headed the Funds practice along with Bijal at NDA. In addition, till recently, he also headed the Corporate and Securities practice of the firm..Siddharth told Bar & Bench that “In addition to the strategic fit for our practices, it was very important for us to select a firm which had truly an institutional set up and a good culture fit. We felt Khaitan offered us that platform and hence we decided to be a part of it. We are excited about the opportunity and looking forward to the same.”.Bijal started her career with NDA after graduating from the Government Law College, Mumbai. Bijal was co-heading both the international tax practice and the investment funds practice. She worked with NDA for more than 12 years..‘Speaking to Bar & Bench on the decision to join Khaitan, Bijal said, “We considered a couple of options – either set up our own firm or join a large law firm to add to these two particular areas of practice which is international tax and investment funds, and we chose the latter and joined Khaitan”..Khaitan & Co’s Mumbai Founding Partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala told Bar & Bench that the firm is particularly excited about the recent lateral hires. “They are young, dynamic leaders and they think like us. I think it’s a perfect fit”, said Jhunjhunwala..On the recent spate of lateral shifts to the firm, Jhunjhunwala believes that the firm is “very different from the other larger Indian law firms”. “We are not a family run firm…people have a voice here”, said Jhunjhunwala .On the recent rise of smaller firms being set up, Jhunjhunwala notes that, “Unless the existing family firms change their style of functioning, there are bound to be people who will breakaway and start their own firms or join other firms.”.These two hires will push the total number of Partners in the firm to 59.
