Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas moved into its now-renovated 23rd, 24th and 17th floors of its Express Towers offices late last month.

The firm’s Mumbai managing partner Akshay Chudasama, who officially joined Shardul Amarchand on 25 May 2015, confirmed that the Mumbai office had been based in the Nariman Point-based Express Towers since opening in the city and that the firm had leased the 23rd and half of the 24th and 17th floors in the building.

While those three floors were still being renovated, the firm’s new office was based on other floors in the building temporarily.

Chudasama said that the current headcount was around 80 lawyers in Mumbai, though the new offices had seating space for a total of 140.

Shardul Amarchand had entered into two lease agreements with Indian Express Newspapers (Mumbai) Pvt Ltd last year via two partners – Shardul Shroff and Akshay Chudasama.

The first was entered into by Shardul Shroff, while the second agreement was entered into by Mumbai managing partner Chudasama on September 15, according to the contract available with the local property registry.

24th half-floor

The first leave and license agreement was signed on 23 July for an area of 8,668 square feet on the 24th floor of the building, which Legally India understands is around half the available space on that floor.

It is a five-year lease with a monthly rental of Rs 15.169 lakh for the first 36 months (three years) and thereafter a 15 per cent increase in the rental costs for the next 24 months (two years).

The deposit paid for this deal was Rs 65.79 lakh, according to the agreement.

The signatories to this deal are Dhillon Pereira of the Express Group, and Shardul Shroff. The stamp duty paid for this deal is Rs 2.5 lakh.

23rd floor

The later lease agreement was signed for a space of 16,572 square feet.

The monthly rental for this was around Rs 29 lakh.

The deposit for the deal was roughly Rs 1.26 crore.

Pereira remained the signatory on this deal from the Express group, while for Shardul Amarchand the signatory was Chudasama.

The stamp duty paid for the deal was Rs 5.53 lakh.

Legally India did not have access to the papers for half of the 17th floor, but if rates are similar as for the 24th floor, that would work out to a monthly rent of at least Rs 59 lakh, and a total deposit of at least Rs 2.56 crore.

Shardul Amarchand in Mumbai also has a litigation office in the Fort area’s Lentin Chambers, near the Bombay high court.

Express Towers had seen an exodus of law firms to mid-town in recent years, with AZB & Partners having been the most recent to move out of the iconic building to Lower Parel, following DSK Legal in 2010.

ALMT Legal remains in Express Towers, having secured additional floors in recent years.

The original partnership firm Amarchand Mangaldas Suresh A Shroff & Co was dissolved on 9 May 2015, with both erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas managing partners and Shroff brothers setting up new, independent firms.

Shardul launched his firm on May 10, while Cyril Shroff launched his new firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas a day later on May 11.