Mumbai-headquartered law firms BTG Legal and Advaya Legal have merged to form BTG Advaya, an 11-partner law firm with a presence in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi.

The new firm will be co-headed by Ramesh Vaidyanathan (L) and Prashant Mara, who were managing partners at Advaya Legal and BTG Legal, respectively.  “Consistent with the ethos of strategic, partner-led advice, the firm will maintain a partner-to-associate ratio of 1:4,” BTG Advaya said in a statement.

The combination will diversify the firms’ client base and add new partners, Mara said.

“While most mergers or combinations end up being about numbers, our firm belief is that we are professionals coming together and not just businesses merging – therefore, the bottom line is that the quality of legal advice we provide must be top-notch – which I am confident we will score on, as Ramesh and his team are some of the best lawyers I know,”  Mara said in a statement.

Vaidyanathan and Mara share a close personal and professional relationship, which was also one of the reasons behind the merger. The merger will “enable me to work closely with Ramesh, who is a brilliant and well-known lawyer and has been a dear friend for more than 15 years,” Mara said.

“I knew Prashant as an excellent lawyer for several years before our professional relationship grew into a deep and lasting friendship,” Vaidyanathan added.

BTG Legal was founded by Mara in 2014 after his stint as a partner with international law firm Osborne Clarke at its London and Cologne offices.

Advaya Legal was founded in 2010 by Ramesh Vaidyanathan, who had earlier served as the general counsel of several portfolio businesses of Indian infrastructure major GVK.