Law firms

Ashok Kumar Mishra, former Kolkata debt recovery tribunal (DRT) presiding officer and former general manager legal of IDBI Bank, has joined Mumbai-based MDP & Partners (formerly M Dhruva & Partners) as a senior partner to head its banking practice.

T&T Law founding partner Rohit Tandon, now in jail for nearly a year in one of the most high-profile arrests carried out in the wake of the government's demonetisation drive in 2015, is now awaiting a final order of the Supreme Court over his bail plea in the money laundering case against him.

Online lending startup Ziploan, operated by Delhi-based Blue Jay Finlease, has raised Rs 20 crores (around $3m) in a funding round led by Matrix Partners India along with existing investors Whiteboard Capital, Waterbridge Ventures, Capital 18 Managing Director Sarabvir Singh & GrowX Projects as reported by VC Circle and The Economic Times.

Michelle Solomon Le Page has been promoted to equity partner on 1 October at Mumbai-headquartered firm Solomon & Co, which had been founded by her great-grandfather in 1909.

US-international firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton has promoted three to partner this year, including London-based M&A lawyer Nallini Puri, reported The Lawyer and others.

Luthra & Luthra has outbid Singaporean firms in a charity auction at a legal event in Singapore to secure the mock internship of English queen's counsel (QC) and Essex Court Chambers tenant Toby Landau, according to Bar & Bench.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) has significantly underbid competitors Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) and Luthra & Luthra to win the final rounds of blind bidding for the mammoth strategic Air India disinvestment, quoting Rs 29.9 lakh ($46,100) in fees for what is expected to be a complex series of corporate M&A deals, said sources with knowledge of the bid.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM), Crawford Bayley, Luthra & Luthra, ALMT Legal, Trilegal, Hammurabi & Solomon and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) have applied to act as legal advisors on Air India's share sale, reported the PTI.

Online insurance selling platform Policybazaar, which is operated by ETechAces Marketing and Consulting, has raised Rs 515 crore ($79 million) in a Series E funding round, as reported by VC Circle.

Bangalore law firm MD&T Partners merged with litigation firm Equitas Legal on 1 October, to form a six-partner, 17 lawyer firm in the city.

Tags: J. Sagar Associates (JSA)PepsiCo India Holdings (PepsiCo) has sold its franchise rights for the State of Odisha and parts of Madhya Pradesh to Varun Beverages Limited (“VBL”), PepsiCo’s largest bottler in India and the flagship company of the R K Jaipuria Group, as reported by Money Control and Business Standard. VBL will now be a franchisee for PepsiCo products across 18 states and 2 union territories in the country.

Kochhar & Co Chennai-based partner Hufriz Wadia has joined AZB & Partners as counsel in Mumbai on 16 October.

In an online straw poll of foreign law firm India group partners we conducted, 15 out of 16 (94%) responded that opening an office in a special economic zone (SEZ) in India “would not be interesting for us under any circumstances”, casting doubt over the government's current seemingly preferred approach to liberalise the Indian legal market by starting with SEZs.