Bhatikar told Legally India: “I thought ALMT would be a better bet to join and take the shipping practice to another level.”
Bhatikar, who was at Mulla & Mulla & Craigie Blunt & Caroe from 2001 until he joined Paras Kuhad in late 2009, will be focusing mostly on shipping, trade and insurance dispute resolution and arbitrations in London and Singapaore.
He completed a BSc in chemistry in 1996 and an LLB in law in 2001.
“I see a lot of potential for the next 10 to 15 years - India is going to be a very big hub for shipping and logistics considering the infrastructure development in India,” he said. “In addition to international shipping firms, I will also be targeting the domestic shipping firms.”
He will be working closely with several ALMT associates and ALMT co-founding partner Ananjan Mitter, who also does shipping work.
ALMT’s UK best-friend relationship firm Clyde & Co counts shipping as one of its speciality practice areas.
ALMT recently opened up an office in Delhi with former Luthra & Luthra partner Vineet Aneja and earlier this year took on board a project finance practice from India Law Services with Ishtiaq Ali.
Commenting on Bhatikar’s move, Paras Kuhad Associates managing partner Paras Kuhad said: “The very best for him and his new firm.”
Bhatikar had joined as an associate partner during Paras Kuhad Associates’ short-lived merger with Hemant Sahai Associates, after which it lost a number of partners and senior lawyers.
But Paras Kuhad Associates said that its headcount had now regrown to a total of around 76 lawyers, including five equity partners and around five salaried partners, across its offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur.
Comments
It is a deeply specialised field of law, very much in it's nascent stages in India - most work in the field in india is of a contentious nature. Widely respected Senior Counsel S. Venkiteswaran, is the pre - eminent lawyer in this field, and there are some others like Prashant S Pratap, Zahrir Bharucha etc.
And India's shipping industry and merchant fleet also are scaling up....
Besides, India has one of the largest coastlines and ships of all shapes and sizes enter the country's territorial waters - and the country's fishing vessels enter, unwittingly, into another state's waters...witness the poor sods who are routinely caught by India and Pakistan.
(Only pray no Somali pirate kidnaps your ship on the high seas, or, a Jehadi sailing contingent from Karachi, on their way to their sea-borne invasion of India's coastal cities, slits your throat while they commandeer your boat. No law firm's "shipping practice" will be of any use then!)