HSA Advocates has hired Naik Naik & Co corporate partner Bharat Sharma who started today in its Mumbai office.

Sharma had joined Naik in March 2012.

HSA founder Hemant Sahai commented: “We already have about 12 partners in corporate M&A, including Bharat now.”

He added that he would expect to add several more corporate partners soon, both on the execution side and to bring in new business.

Naik managing partner Ameet Naik commented that he wished Sharma all the luck.

Sharma is the firm’s twenty-fourth partner, having hired partner Sharath Chandrashekhar in Bangalore less than a month ago.

Sahai added that the “firm has entered into an exciting growth trajectory, and is driven to glide through this growth phase, honing and maintaining excellent credentials and building on bench strength to support the launch of HSA into its next phase”.

Sharma is a 2006-qualified Bombay Incorporate Law Society (BILS) solicitor holding a 2005-LLB from KC Law College of the University of Mumbai, who specialises in M&A, private equity, venture capital and other corporate work.

He began his career as an articled clerk at Crawford Bayley, moving to ARA Law in 2006, Talwar Thakore & Associates in 2007, briefly to PDS & Associates in 2009, and Khaitan & Co from 2010 to 2012.

HSA has been the most aggressively hiring firm this year according to our research, with Sharma being the sixth reported hire in the 2016 financial year already after hiring Amitabh Sharma from Khaitan & Co as the firm’s new managing partner in April.