Delhi-based four-year-old start-up law firm Palit & Co has expanded to five partners after hiring Amit Jain, who was formerly an executive partner at Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS), as a partner in Delhi on 2 November.

Amit Jain had been promoted in 2016 to executive partner at LKS, and specialises in indirect tax work.

LKS CEO Bipin Verma commented: “We wish him the very best.”

Jain’s hire follows Shiva Nagesh joining Palit as a tax and regulatory-specialist partner in March 2020, having before that worked as associate partner at Lexport Advocates and in-house.

A brief history of a young firm

Palit and partner Lalitendra Gulani commented about Jain’s joining that his “decades of experience and wealth of knowledge in the field of indirect taxation will immensely help the firm to strengthen the creative and quality focused services we constantly strive to deliver to our clients”.

Palit himself had started the firm as a sole proprietorship practice, dealing in general litigation and dispute resolution, particularly in IP and commercial contracts.

In 2019, he was joined by Lalitendra Gulani, who is also a RMNLU graduate but from the 2015 batch. Gulani had previously worked at Nitya Tax Associates and he specialises in indirect tax work. Palit & Co now has 10 fee-earners, including 5 partners - having also been joined by Narender Pal Singh as a corporate practice associate partner and chartered accountant Pulkit Singhal as a director dealing with taxation.

Four of the five partners are equity partners.

“We are trying to focus to grow with dedication and maintaining value and quality in what we are doing” and with an “emphasis on quality, which any good firm would have”, said Palit, but added that “we don’t want to expand very quickly”.

The firm’s clientele was mostly domestic Indian clients but also the Indian subsidiaries of several Japanese subsidiaries.

When he had started the firm, it had been “a very humble beginning” with two or three clients whom he could “ask for work and who would support me”, Palit recounted, activating his contacts and referrals in the industry, until it “organically just expanded”.

The firm had for around two years also began focusing on sending out updates on emerging legal issues to clients, which had been useful, he said.

Palit & Co currently had a “small office in Vasant Kunj” in Delhi, said Palit, and while there had been a plan to move into a bigger office before the pandemic hit, since then they had “picked juniors from different parts o the country” who are all working remotely now.

This would continue, Palit said, since the “remote way of functioning is working well for us” besides meeting up in courts when required, and a lot of other big law firms had also been doing well with remote work.

Amit JainWork history Jan 2010 - Mar 2020: Former Executive Partner, Lakshmikumaran and SridharanFull-time (New Delhi) Dec 1984 - Jan 2010: Additional Commissioner, Central Board Of Excise & CustomsFull-time (New Delhi)Education 1974 - 1977: Shri Ram College of Commerce, B.Com (Hons), 1977 - 1979: Delhi University, M.Com, 2004 - 2007: Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, LL.B., Advocate Shiva NageshWork history From: Mar 2020: Partner, Palit & Co, Advocates and SolicitorsFull-time (New Delhi) Oct 2019 - Feb 2020: Associate Partner Litigation and Advisory at LEXPORT, LEXport | Advocates & Legal Consultants (Delhi NCR) Feb 2019 - Oct 2019: Partner, SHARNAM LEGAL - Advocates & SolicitorsFull-time (Delhi NCR) Aug 2018 - Jan 2019: Director-Litigation and advisory, Kean Tax Advisors LLPFull-time (New Delhi) Dec 2016 - Jul 2018: Partner, NITYA TAX ASSOCIATES (NEW DELHI) Jul 2015 - Dec 2016: Assistant Vice President-Indirect taxes, DLF Limited (Gurgaon) May 2014 - Jul 2015: Group General Manager Corporate Indirect tax-Handling the entire group’s indirect tax management, GMR Infrastructure Ltd (Bangalore) Jul 2007 - May 2014: SENIOR INDIRECT TAX PROFESSIONAL, DLF Limited Feb 1997 - Jun 2007: MANAGER COMMERCIAL, BARCO ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS P LTDEducation 1977 - 1980: Madras University, B.A. corporate secretaryship, Corporate Law, Company Law 1983 - 1984: Andhra Chamber of Commerce, PGDBM, 1997 - 1998: NILEM Chennai, , export and import mngmnt 2013 - 2015: CCS University Meerut, Bachelor of Laws (LLB), Pallav PalitWork history From: Jul 2016: Partner, Palit & Co, Advocates and Solicitors (New Delhi Area) Feb 2014 - Aug 2016: Litigation lawyer, Khaitan & Co (New Delhi Area) Jul 2013 - Feb 2014: Intellectual Property Attorney, Worldwide IntellecEducation 2008 - 2013: National Law University, Lucknow, India, B.A. LL.B (Hons), LawLalitendra GulaniWork history From: Jun 2019: Founding Partner, Palit & Co, Advocates and SolicitorsFull-time (New Delhi) May 2015 - Jun 2019: Proprietor, Chambers of Lalitendra Gulani (New Delhi Area)Education 2010 - 2015: Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow, B.A. LL.B (Hons.), International Business, Trade, and Tax Law