Dezan Shira & Associates Reorganizes Mumbai Office

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Apr. 24 – The professional services firm Dezan Shira & Associates, taking advantage of recent regulatory changes, have registered an LLP in Mumbai, increased staff, and confirmed that the founder of the practice, Chris Devonshire-Ellis, will become the firm’s managing partner in India.

Devonshire-Ellis, who resigned from the firm’s China practice in February, will formally commence duties on May 1.

The firm’s India practice has been operational for the past two and a half years, albeit with a small staff presence. However, the liberalization of India’s legal and accounting services industry has opened the doors for foreign firms to participate in the sector. Dezan Shira & Associates response has been to increase the number of staff with the firm’s practice, and to move to larger premises in Mumbai, the country’s commercial and business capital.

“We have been working towards this situation for over two years now, and finally with the government relaxing the regulatory environment for foreign firms, we are now able to move ahead with a fully fledged practice,” Devonshire-Ellis said.

The India practice has secured a larger office in the Bandra area in Mumbai and, with the addition of more staff, is in the process of further developing the Dezan Shira publication India Briefing within the country, much in the same way China Briefing was previously developed.

Dezan Shira & Associates new legal associate in Mumbai is Vikas Srivastana, a law graduate from Pune University who also holds a masters in international business law from the University of Singapore.

“It is not often one gets the chance in a career to develop two markets as huge and diverse as India and China both are,” says Devonshire-Ellis, “I am looking forward to developing not just the India business but also the bilateral trade and relations between the two countries. I would like to thank our friends and clients for their support both here and in China as we continue to move in our development direction of being a truly Asia Regional practice.”

Dezan Shira & Associates was established in 1992 Shenzhen, China. The China practice now has eight offices throughout Mainland China as well as an office in Hong Kong. The business magazine China Briefing was first launched 10 years ago and has since developed into a regional publishing house, producing several country-specific magazine titles, a growing library of well received books on China law and tax, and a variety of related other websites and business journals. The firm also operates in Vietnam.

The Mumbai office of Dezan Shira & Associates can be contacted here.