Law firms

Khaitan Sud & Partners (KSP) equity partner Tanuj Sud has started up South Delhi based law firm Gravitas Legal, following the break-up of KSP as first reported by Legally India in March.

Three Delhi litigation partners hired by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas from Dua Associates one year ago - Neeraj Sharma, Alok Tiwari and Seshagiri Vadlamani - are leaving the firm.

Phoenix Legal counsel Mukul Baveja has joined Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas as a salaried partner, according to his Linked-in profile as first reported by Bar & Bench.

Dua Associates merged with Thakore Jariwala & Associates in Mumbai and SAK & Associates in Chandigarh, bringing three new equity partners into the Dua partnership, according to Bar & Bench.

The firm also added three lawyers from the two cities as salaried partners, promoted five of its managers to partners in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, and re-absorbed one former lawyer as partner in Delhi thus making nine new salaried partners in all.

Mumbai

Thakore Jariwala’s founding partners Hetal Thakore and ZA Jariwala joined Dua as equity partners, and its partners Agnes Baradia and Jyoti Ghag joined as salaried partners. Thakore and Jariwala focus on litigation.

Chandigarh

SAK managing partner Siddhartha Kumar joined Dua as equity partner and independent Chandigarh lawyer Aman Bahri joined as a salaried partner. Bahri is a litigator, Kumar focusses on corporate.

Delhi

Managers Amarta Roy and Suneera Tandon were promoted to parter. Independent litigator Munawwar Naseem re-joined the firm, as partner, after a gap of five years.

Bangalore

Managers Rayappa Hadagali and P K Shrikara were promoted to partner.

Chennai

Manager Arjun Suresh was promoted to partner.

Singhania & Co opened an office in Indore – its tenth in India, which is headed by its Mumbai managing partner Pradeep Jain. The firm will focus on general corporate advisory, forensics and white collar crimes in Indore.

IC Legal promoted principal associate Suneet Barve to partnership effective 1 April. Barve co-heads the firm’s funds practice and is a part of its financial services practice.

Aninda Pal, who had joined Juris Corp in November 2015, has left and will join HSA Advocates.

Shagoofa Rashid Khan, the senior director and legal and compliance head at IDFC Alternatives, will join Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas as a funds partner to take over some of the practice left by Ashwath Rau, who will be joining AZB & Partners, according to authoritative sources.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has hired J Sagar Associates (JSA) securities partners Manisha Kumar and Gautam Gandotra, who were part of the team soon-to-leave JSA partner Somasekhar Sundaresan.

T&T Law created a new insurance vertical and added former National Insurance Company general manager AK Singhal to head it.

OP Khaitan & Co managing partner Gautam Khaitan, who had been arrested in late 2014 for nearly three months in the choppergate investigation, has again been called on for questioning by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Firstpost and others reported:

CBI on Wednesday questioned former IAF Chief SP Tyagi and examined lawyer Gautam Khaitan for the first time after an Italian court held that bribes were paid to clinch the Rs 3600 crore VVIP Helicopter deal.

CBI sources said both arrived at the agency headquarters on Wednesday morning to appear before the investigation team.

Khaitan had recently also received press coverage for having referred a client to notorious Panamanian offshore firm Mossack Fonseca.

Kochhar & Co partner Saloni Gupta has joined Link Legal India Law Services as a partner, reported Bar & Bench.

Trilegal has restructured slightly in the wake of co-founding partner Anand Prasad's announcement that he would retire within a year