Khaitan Mumbai senior partner Ravi Kulkarni said: “Her husband has been working in the Gulf for the past two years. Recently her young son was admitted to a very good international school in Abu Dhabi. Her husband is now required to travel very frequently out of Abu Dhabi for long periods so she was in two minds [about] what to do. So finally she decided to move to Abu Dhabi. We encouraged her to pursue her career there.”

“She’s moved on,” he said, adding that it was uncertain whether Sawant would rejoin the firm because she is going to be in Abu Dhabi for “at least the next five to six years”.

Sawant was not reachable for comment at the time of going to press.

She had graduated as a lawyer from the University of Mumbai and had joined Little & Co in 1997 until 2005 when she moved to Khaitan. She was promoted to the firm’s partnership in 2008.

A firm spokesperson said that her responsibilities in the practice will be shared by its existing partners Nikhilesh Panchal, Arindam Ghosh and the firm’s latest laterally recruited associate partner Kartick Maheshwari.