Law firms

ALMT Legal has formed a best friends relationship with UK international firm Clyde & Co.

In a joint statement the firms said that they would share information, harmonise training and set in place an extensive secondment programme.

ALMT partner S R Arun (pictured) said: "We anticipate that we will have access to the markets where Clyde is and that not many of the large magic circle firms have got access to."

Khaitan & Co has made up a former PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) chartered accountant-cum-lawyer to partner.

Sanjay Sanghvi (pictured) only qualified as a lawyer after joining Khaitan in January 2008 from PwC. He is the third new member to the law firm's partnership in as many months.

He said that working in a law firm was very satisfying: "In accountancy firms you typically do compliance work and you don't go deeper into the law and interpretation.

Amarchand's Kolkata head has quit the firm to pursue interests outside the law.

Krishnava Dutt was the only partner based in Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co's Kolkata office of more than 20 lawyers.

The firm will relocate Delhi corporate partner Kalpataru Tripathy to fill his space and lead the office.

Amarchand co-managing partner Cyril Shroff (pictured) told Legally India that the terms of Dutt's departure were amicable.

Trilegal spin-off Phoenix Legal has added two associates in Delhi, vowing to significantly expand its practice there and in Mumbai with lateral hires.

The firm is hoping to hire a lateral partner for its Mumbai office and to double it in size to 10 lawyers by the end of the year.

FoxMandal Little has hired a partner to head its New Delhi intellectual property (IP) practice of three lawyers.

Vinay Dwarkadas joined from Khaitan & Co's Mumbai office where he was a senior associate.

Dwarkadas (pictured) said that he hoped to greatly expand the existing IP practice at FoxMandal: "I have to be its backbone and want to take it forward for years to come. I plan to be here for a long time."

Private equity boutique firm Lexygen has opened a new office in Singapore, on its third anniversary of founding.

Two lawyers from Lexygen's Bangalore headquarters have temporarily relocated to Singapore and are hoping to recruit a local lawyer to head the office within the next six months.

Lexygen founding partner Vijay Sambamurthi said: "We aim for our Singapore office and the team that will be built, to act as the Asia hub for our firm."

Vaish Associates Mumbai office is hammering out a health insurance JV between its close client Religare Enterprises and global insurance company Swiss Re.

The Vaish team is being led by partner Bomi Daruwala, assisted by associates Amitjivan Joshi and Arti Narsana.

Swiss Re is understood to be represented by its global in-house team but is due to pick its domestic Indian legal representation soon.

Luthra & Luthra advised a consortium of banks on their Rs 14,550 crore ($3.1bn) project financing of the Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project for Reliance Power.

Reliance handled the transaction entirely with its in-house legal team of seven, led by its head of legal Umesh Mooteri.

Luthra & Luthra Delhi project finance head Sameen Vyas and Mumbai banking head Vijaya Rao (pictured) co-led the team for State Bank of India and a consortium of 11 other lenders.

Luthra & Luthra is ramping up its Mumbai capital markets practice after hiring alumnus and new group head Manan Lahoty from US firm Shearman & Sterling in London.

Lahoty (pictured) will lead the Mumbai capital markets team of five associates, reporting to capital markets partner Madhurima Mukherjee in Delhi and her team of 10 lawyers.

Until now, Mukherjee had managed the Luthra & Luthra Mumbai team from Delhi but she admitted that this was difficult to do from a distance. "When Manan wanted to come back the logical choice was to send him to Bombay," she said.

Amarchand is battling on in Punjab & Haryana for telecommunications company Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) in its attempts to sue state-owned telecoms operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) over a Rs 30,000 crore ($6bn) contract.

Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co litigation partner Ritu Bhalla is leading the NSN team, which has today filed another petition against BSNL with the Chandigarh High Court in Punjab & Haryana.

AZB & Partners has bagged the biggest ever Indian cross-border merger mandate, advising Bharti Airtel on its revived $23bn bid to take over South African telecoms major MTN.

London international Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will be advising long-standing client MTN but the company's Indian counsel has not yet been chosen.

AZB Delhi partners Ajay Bahl (pictured) and Gautam Saha are understood to be leading the legal team for Bharti, having won the instruction off the back of previous work done by the firm for the company.

Delhi-headquartered law firm King Stubb & Kasiva is set to open a new office in Mumbai within months and has added a new equity partner to its head office ranks.

The firm is currently finalising the negotiations with up to two partners from Mumbai firms to spearhead its new office.

Managing partner Jidesh Kumar (pictured) said: "The Mumbai office would be banking, finance and infrastructure focused. We are looking at having an infrastructure partner from one of the top five law firms there."

Khaitan & Co has continued its aggressive lateral hiring strategy, taking partner Prabjot Singh Bhullar from AZB & Partners.

Bhullar (pictured) was based in AZB's Mumbai office but will relocate to Delhi, where he will significantly bolster Khaitan's infrastructure and projects capacity.

Khaitan partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala said that the firm was keen to expand in infrastructure and tax, in order to improve cross selling opportunities to the firm's domestic clients.

Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co has poached two Mumbai partners from competitors as it hopes to widen its partnership.

The firm has hired Luthra & Luthra corporate partner Ashish Jejurkar and Mulla & Mulla & Blunt & Caroe infrastructure partner Tushar Mavani.

Amarchand managing partner Cyril Shroff (pictured) told UK legal magazine The Lawyer: "These two people have the right temperament and drive to be part of our vision.

Khaitan & Co has hired senior associate Bharat Anand from UK magic circle firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.