V Law will initially focus on general corporate, M&A, real estate and employment work from its offices in Mumbai’s Churchgate area.

The firm has hired one three-year practising associate, who is set to join on 1 October, one fresher from NALSAR Hyderabad law school and two Government Law College Mumbai students on articles for the solicitors’ qualification.

Daswaney (pictured) said: “I have an entrepreneurial streak in me and was generally looking for an opportunity to start a new law firm.”

Daswaney added that in his 12 years of legal practice he had always joined firms in start-up stages, which had given him an appetite for doing so again.

He explained that he had joined ARA Law when it started and left the firm four-and-a-half years later when it was at its peak. He then joined Kochhar & Co just after it had opened its Mumbai office.

Daswaney had then been at ALMT’s Mumbai office for six years, he said, seeing the office grow from eight to 80 lawyers and becoming a non-equity partner three years ago.

The recession was probably scaring people to start up on their own, noted Daswaney, but he added that a downturn was a great opportunity to keep costs low and to compete.

Daswaney is qualified as a solicitor in Mumbai and in England & Wales.

He is also currently in talks to bring other partners on board in the capital markets and litigation fields.

ALMT co-founding partner Sameer Tapia said that the Daswaney’s departure was amicable. “We speak regularly and we very proudly say [his practice] is a branch of our tree.”