AZB & Partners has hired Shreya Rao, the founder of Rao Law Chambers, as a partner in Bangalore to co-head its private client practice. She will join from 20 June with her team of two lawyers.

She is a 2006 Nalsar Hyderabad graduate with a 2009 LLM from Harvard Law School, working with Nishith Desai Associates from 2006 until 2015, where she eventually led the private client practice and co-led the international tax practice.

In April 2016, she had founded her own boutique private client firm Rao Law Chambers, which specialised in private wealth and tax work.

Between 2009 and 2013, she was also visiting faculty at NLSIU Bangalore, teaching around direct tax and international taxation, and from July 2016 she also began teaching at Azim Premji University in Bangalore as visiting faculty.

“Her arrival will ensure an even greater push for AZB’s private client practice and international tax practice,” AZB noted in a statement.

Her fellow AZB private client co-head is partner Anand Shah.

Private client work has become increasingly interesting - and potentially profitable - for the large Indian law firms, though it remains niche.

Former J Sagar Associates (JSA) senior partner Berjis Desai, for instance, now focuses on private client work, which he explained in detail in our interview in 2017.