Indian law firm JSA has welcomed back banking and finance expert Divyanshu Pandey from S&R Associates as an equity partner, as the firm continues an aggressive lateral hiring spree.

Pandey, who joined S&R in 2020 from JSA, will work with the latter's executive committee, joint managing partners and practice area chairs to strengthen the firm's finance practice, the firm said in a statement.

He specialises in acquisition finance, real estate finance, structured finance, project finance, insolvency resolution and debt capital markets. His clients include Indian and multinational banks, non-banking finance companies, debt funds, financial institutions, and corporates.

Pandey previously worked at JSA for over 11 years. Earlier, he was at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May in London.

"We are excited to welcome Divyanshu back to the JSA family. His wealth of experience in banking and finance laws will greatly enhance our efforts in expanding and fortifying our practice," said Amit Kapur and Vivek K. Chandy, joint managing partners at JSA, in the statement.

Pandey's move comes days after JSA hired a team of around 20 mergers and acquisitions lawyers from rival Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, led by rainmaker partner Iqbal Khan.

In recent months, JSA has also hired a four-member disputes team from Krishnamurthy & Co and former Trilegal counsel Anurag Shrivastav in Mumbai; partners Brijita Prakash, Santosh Vijay and Rakesh Warrier in Bengaluru; and Harshavardhan Abburi in Hyderabad.