foreign law firms

When we interviewed former J Sagar Associates (JSA) senior partner Berjis Desai last month about his new post-retirement life as a private lawyer, he said that one of the advantages with not being inside a law firm anymore, was that “one is freed from the world of conflict of interest - one is free to say what he wants, and speak what one wants.”

2001 GLC Mumbai graduate and Clifford Chance London senior associate Amer Siddiqui has joined Simmons & Simmons as a partner in its capital markets team.

Linklaters has promoted managing associate and NLSIU Bangalore 2005 graduate Kanyaka Ramamurthi to partner, as reported by The Lawyer.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has topped the mergermarket value league table of international law firms that advised on M&A deals in the record 2016 calendar year.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer London-based partner and India practice head Pratap Amin has retired from the firm and is in the process of deciding whether to go independent as a consultant or joining a UK or Indian company in-house.

General counsel (GCs) from at least 15 big Indian companies welcomed liberalisation in Indian legal services, and said that the Bar Council of India (BCI) was currently the “biggest bottleneck” to law firm liberalisation.

The Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) reportedly passed a resolution yesterday opposing the government’s notification that might have been intended to pave the way for foreign law firms to operate in special economic zones (SEZs).

The Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) is not yet sure how to deal with the government’s surprise rule change that might see foreign law firms open up in special economic zones (SEZs) such as the Gujarat International Financial Tec-City (GIFT).

As first reported by Live Law this week, the ministry of commerce and industry, which has been spearheading the government’s efforts to liberalise the legal market, alongside the law ministry, has revoked a ban on the practice of law from special economic zones (SEZs), by issuing a notification in the Gazette of India amending the Special Economic Rules governing Special Economic Zones on 3 January 2017.

Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft special counsel Sinjini Saha, who is a 2004 graduate of NLSIU Bangalore, has been promoted to the US law firm’s partnership in London.

Delhi University 2004 graduate Amit Kataria has been elected to Morrison & Foerster’s partnership in Hong Kong, as part of a round of promotions to new partners.

Indigo has hired a new general counsel (GC) with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Singapore-based of counsel Priya Mehra, reported Bar & Bench.

Weil Gotshal & Manges associate Nitin Konchady, who is a 2006 graduate of NLSIU Bangalore, has been promoted to partner in the London banking department’s Europe-focused high yield debt practice area in a partnership promotion round of 13, according to the firm’s press release.

NLU Delhi vice chancellor (VC) Prof Ranbir Singh, who on Friday joined the board of the 300-plus member International Association of Universities (IAU), said that the “timing is proper” for liberalisation in Indian legal services.

Senior counsel and Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has sent a letter to prime minister Narendra Modi, copying in the finance, law and commerce ministers, pleading with Modi to not challenge the BCI’s role in regulating the legal profession and the entry of foreign law firms and to bring the BCI back to the negotiating table about the future of the profession.

Opening up of professional services appeared to have been discussed by the delegation headed by UK prime minister Theresa May with the Indian government today, with British justice secretary Elizabeth Truss having said that May would “pave the way for UK lawyers to practise there” after she was asked about the progress of liberalisation in the UK parliament.

The Indian Corporate Counsels Association (ICCA) has proposed eight weekly meetings between various stakeholders in the legal services liberalisation discussion, in order to prepare a status report on the points of consensus and disagreement between them.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has invited the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) to help it fine-tune its proposal to the Law Commission, which was called upon by the Supreme Court to take a comprehensive look at the role of the bar councils’ “failure” and “inaction” in regulating the legal profession.

Kirkland & Ellis and Slaughter & May acted on the biggest Indian M&A transactions among 14 foreign law firms that each advised on more than $1bn worth of Indian M&A deals this quarter.