Law firms

According to a copy of the minutes of the meeting of Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) members on Monday, the SILF “decided to organise an interaction over dinner” with the recently re-appointed new law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister of state PP Chaudhary and law secretary Suresh Chandra, who is spearheading the liberalisation talks.

PDS Legal and Desai & Diwanji together acted for the Wadia group-owned airline GoAir in its order to buy another 72 Airbus 320 NEO aircrafts for around $7.7bn.

Shearman & Sterling, DLA Piper, White & Case and Allen & Overy had the largest number of recorded Indian M&A deals in the first six months of 2016, according to data intelligence provider mergermarket, each with five or four transactions.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has topped the list of 13 domestic law firms’ M&A mandates by value of deals done with $6.2bn worth of transactions, followed by AZB & Partners and Vaish Associates, with stronger performances across the board than at the same time last year.

The Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) meeting held in Delhi yesterday (11 July) to discuss its response and position to the Government proposal to liberalise the legal market, has seen the body set up a high-powered committee without any fundamental disagreements voiced about the next steps to take, according to several people who were present.

Nirma will buy Lafarge India’s assets for $1.4bn from LafargeHolcim according to reports, with several law firms getting a slice of the action including Ashwath Rau’s old and new firm.

Former Agram Legal Consultants partner Sudipta Routh, who’d joined the firm in May 2015 from Luthra & Luthra, will join Samvad Partners in Mumbai as its third partner.

Nishith Desai Associates Mumbai acted for Tiger Global and DST Global, which invested $30m (Rs 200 crore) in a series C round in home rental company NestAway, which was advised by K Law.

This morning’s hotly anticipated meeting between government ministries and several non-governmental organisations, including the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) and the Bar Council of India (BCI), passed without any principled resistance by stakeholders to the allowing foreign lawyers to practice in India.

The liberalisation process might never have been as advanced, but it remains a process fraught with sensitivity.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has scooped Cognizant Technology Solutions India & APAC region general counsel (GC) Anand Bhushan to set and head up its new Chennai office after he fully leaves a little later this month, according to three authoritative sources.

HSA Advocates has hired Naik Naik & Co corporate partner Bharat Sharma who started today in its Mumbai office.

K Law acted for Capital Float, the online lending platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in its $25m (Rs 170 crores) fundraising round led by Creation Investments, which was advised by J Sagar Associates (JSA) Delhi partner Lalit Kumar along with senior associate Bharti Joshi.

Talwar Thakore Associates (TTA) has advised Reliance Industries (RIL) on a joint venture agreement to set up a payments bank with State Bank of India (SBI) on 30 June, in which RIL will hold a 70 per cent stake.