Phoenix Legal has opened its first office after Delhi and Mumbai, launching in Chennai today with a team of four lawyers.

The Chennai office in the Seethakathi Business Centre in the central Anna Salai area, and is headed by corporate principal associate Sriram Ramachandran, who has moved from Phoenix’ Mumbai office. He is joined in Chennai by three local laterally hired lawyers.

Explaining the choice of Chennai, Phoenix co-founding partner Saket Shukla said: “A number of our clients do business in the region and we’ve quite a few ongoing projects.”

In particular, the firm had seen a boom in the manufacturing, automotive, electronics, textiles, renewable energy, mining, power, IT and real estate sectors in South India.

“We will provide the same high quality of client focussed service from our Chennai office as is provided from our other offices,” explained Phoenix co-founding partner Abhishek Saxena.

“Although, we are starting with a small team, with Chennai being an important manufacturing cluster and with the emphasis on ‘Make in India’ initiative, we expect the office to grow rapidly and become comparable to the other two offices in a short period of time.”

Partner Manjula Chawla added: “The decision to set up the new Chennai office was driven by larger strategic interest, to not only fit existing client requirements and commitments but also provide an effective alternative to investors and corporates in the region.”

Phoenix Legal was established in 2008 in Delhi and Mumbai and has nine partners, of whom six are equity partners.