A former partner with the regulatory and disputes practice of HSA Advocates said he plans to grow the strength of his new firm, PLA Advocates, to around six by the end of the year.
Founding partner
PLA Advocates
“The idea is to grow to a five or six people firm at the end of this year,” said Aniket Prasoon who left HSA with associates Abhishek Kumar and Srishti Rai to start PLA.
Prasoon said he spotted an opportunity for a firm focused in the renewable energy market in India. The sector has both large companies and smaller players.
“The way the market is maturing, [smaller companies] want efficient services at competitive rates,” he said.
PLA Advocates will focus mainly on regulatory matters, and disputes and arbitration work relating to the energy and infrastructure sectors and project development contracts.
“The clients were supportive about me starting on my own. They also wanted me to go and argue more matters … that was the reason for quitting the firm,” he said.
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Prasoon joined HSA in 2014 and from Trilegal, where he had worked for more than five years.
Prasoon reckons it is prudent for clients to involve a law firm right from the beginning of a project as a matter that goes to court would lead to more pain for the client compared with the cost of a law firm offering day-to-day advice.
“More often than not clients come to you at a stage where the dispute cannot be retracted. When you are involved with a project development activity right from the start, you are on board with regards to the documentation and the correspondence with the opposing side. If you have a better trail of documentation in place, the other side will not want to go to court and give into your demand,” he said. [/ihc-hide-content]
