The founding partner of FoxMandal’s London office, who resigned in September, will set up his own firm in the New Year in an alliance with UK firm Wragge & Co.

Mishra told Legally India last week from London that he was in the process of finalising office space in Delhi and would begin fee-earning work under the banner City Law Practice from January 2013.

He said that he would focus primarily on corporate commercial and intellectual property (IP) work, and start hiring gradually.

His firm and Wragge & Co will enter into a loose affiliation, with the UK firm also assisting him with some non-financial support on building up the technology and infrastructure for his first office.

Wragge’s India practice head Baljit Chohan said: “It is strongly based on a personal relationship – it is an affiliation, it’s not a captive operation. We haven’t made any financial investments or anything like that.”

Chohan added that the tie-up with Mishra would enhance Wragge’s access to the Indian market. “Though I spend four weeks in India every year and some number of colleagues do as well, that takes us so far. We don’t really have the resources of a Linklaters or a Herbert Smith and so on to spend the time on the ground we’d like.

“So while I was happy for a period of time, I thought we’d really need to do something different - a different way of attracting Indian corporates. And by happy coincidence that was at the same time that he was also thinking about leaving Fox.”

Wragge would also continue working with its existing relationship firms in India, Chohan noted.