Law firms

Grant Thornton is seriously miffed at and has threatened to sue for breach of contract former Grant Thornton senior forensics team member Kunal Gupta, who was poached by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas as reported in the previous week.

Legally India reliably understands that Kunal Gupta, Gurgaon-based partner of international accountancy and consulting firm Grant Thornton India, is set to join Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to head up its forensics team as a partner.

AZB & Partners senior associate Debashree Dutta will join Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas’ (SAM) Mumbai office as a partner, focusing on banking, Legally India has reliably learned.

Kochhar & Co has hired Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) partner Rahul Ray as a senior partner, while Ray’s team member Vikram Bajaj joined as a joint partner.

The new report by legal directory Chambers & Partners, which compiles an annual tiered ranking of law firms and partners in various practice areas, has seen Khaitan & Co take the top spot by number of "ranked" lawyers, reported The Economic Times, while AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co and both erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas co-managing partner Shroff brothers have lost dominance.

Jones Day Singapore capital markets partner and India head Manoj Bhargava and of counsel Ankit Kashyap will join top US firm Sidley in Singapore, only several months after Sidley’s capital markets partner in Singapore, Prabhat Mehta, moved to the firm’s New York office full time.

Former Jones Day India partner Sumesh Sawhney joined Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS), as partner, to open up the firm’s office in London.

Vaish Associates advised luxury merchandise e-tailer Radiant Hues on the $2m (Rs 13.8 crore) sale of stake in it to the Anil-Ambani controlled Reliance Capital which was advised by Bharucha & Partners.

Vaish Delhi partner Satwinder Singh and senior associate Varnika Sharma acted for Radiant.

Bharucha Mumbai partner Justin Bharucha and associate Gunmeher Juneja acted for Reliance.

Reliance will end up with 14.07 per cent stake in Radiant, through investment in various tranches, by May 2017, reported VC Circle.