In-house counsel

When 28 years after its birth, India’s most-diversified financial institution that’s not a bank, Bajaj Finance, looked inward, it realised it was short of a legal team comparable to the company’s overall size and rate of diversification. The company’s legal department was understaffed: a total of six in-house lawyers present to handle the documentation and litigation arising out of a portfolio of 11 non-banking financing (NBFC) businesses.

Read how the company hired Sapan Gupta from Standard Chartered and began its facelift.

Legal recruiter Vahura said that general counsel (GC) with between 15 to 25 years of experience, working at companies, could earn from Rs 80 lakh to more than Rs 300 lakh per year as a cost-to-company (CTC) package.

Phoenix Legal Mumbai partner Kartikeya Singh is understood to join investment bank Bank of America (BoA) Merrill Lynch in August as its deputy general counsel (GC) India.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas partner designate Nidhi Parekh will join Citi India’s legal team as senior vice president.

Khaitan & Co associate partner in the Delhi litigation team, Mohit Abraham, will join taxi aggregator Uber to head up its Indian legal function as its legal director India.

Cipla global general counsel (GC) and former Khaitan & Co partner Murali Neelakantan, has resigned in order to focus on a variety of policy, education and other projects, while also set to become an independent director of a former long-standing client.

Mumbai-based Deutsche Bank general counsel (GC) Atulya Sharma has resigned and might join a “telecom company, possibly Reliance Communications or Tata Teleservices at a 25 per cent wage hike”, reported the Economic Times, citing sources.

The paper wrote that IDFC legal head Rajeev Uberoi was front runner to become Deutsche Bank GC after Sharma’s departure in January.

Reliance Industries (RIL) Exploration & Production head legal, Naveen Raju, has joined Mahindra & Mahindra as its new group general counsel (GC).

Phoenix Mills general manager legal Sudarshan KC has joined consumer foods giant Britannia Industries as its head legal in Bangalore earlier this month.

Before joining Phoenix Mills in 2012 was deputy general manager legal at the UB Group, GM-legal at Kingfisher Airlines, and an independent practitioner between 1994 and 2007.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) Mumbai salaried partner Vikrant Patwardhan has joined the world’s largest independent steel trader Stemcor as its general counsel India.

Trilegal counsel Rachika Sahay has joined global oil and gas services company Weatherford as its sole legal counsel in India.

Khaitan & Co Mumbai partner Murali Neelakantan has joined Indian pharmaceutical giant Cipla as its global general counsel (GC).

Deutsche Bank GC to head up JPMorgan team of 6.

UBS India executive director and country counsel Nischal Hindia, who joined the financial institution from Allen & Overy London in 2011, has left to head of Diageo India’s legal team, reported Bar & Bench.