Law firms

Allen & Overy (A&O) has promoted India-England-New-York qualified counsel Amit Singh to partnership in the Hong Kong capital markets practice.

Independent directors, many of whom are also partners in law firms, will have to resign from the boards of several companies after the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) last week capped the number of directorships a person can hold to seven.

Amarchand Mangaldas emerged as the large law firm with the highest ratio of female lawyers ranked by the 2014 Chambers and Partners lawyer directory, while J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Trilegal came lowest with as few as 6 per cent of senior female lawyers.

Samvad Partners has promoted senior associates Nivedita Nivargi and Neela Badami to its partnership in Bangalore, increasing the size of the firm to seven partners.

Former Luthra & Luthra Delhi managing associate Karan Chandhiok, who left the firm in October 2013, has set up regulatory and dispute resolution practice Chandhiok & Associates in Delhi.

Fox Mandal Delhi has released a statement that the London high court’s default judgment for £100,000 by Lawrence Karat, who had claimed negligence advice by the firm last year, has been set aside.

J Sagar Asssociates (JSA), Nishith Desai Associates and Trilegal acted on Goldman Sachs’ and Mitsui Global Investment’s Rs 315 crore ($50m) investment in Global Beverages & Foods.

14 Indian law firm partners and senior associates will be named as “up and comers” and “associates to watch” in legal directory Chambers and Partners’ yet-to-be released Asia Pacific 2014 guide.

A law firm started seven months ago by a Kerala advocate and two ex-senior associates from Amarchand Mangaldas and Trilegal, have acted opposite J Sagar Associates (JSA) and DLA Piper to advise on the takeover of a Kerala-based vocational training company by a German services giant.

Bar Council of India (BCI) chief Manan Kumar Mishra said in a conference hosted by the American Bar Association yesterday that the BCI, in the second week of March, would “pass a resolution to amend Rule 36 in Section IV of the BCI Rules to allow lawyers and law firms to have their own websites”, reported Bar & Bench.

In 2010 the Delhi bar council vowed to crack down on law firm websites but quickly backed down from the proposal. However, in 2008 the Delhi bar council had allowed law firms to have websites within the existing restrictions on advertising. The amendment stated that advocates would be allowed to furnish “website information as prescribed in the Schedule under intimation to and as approved by the Bar Council of India”, which permits little more than publishing advocates’ contact details, qualifications and areas of specialisation.

Research and a column published on Legally India in 2012 pointed out most law firms and their websites were in “blatant violation” of the BCI’s advertising rules.

Seven years after advising India’s largest realtor DLF in its $250m buy of Aman resorts, Luthra & Luthra advised DLF in selling Aman back to its owner Adrian Zecha for $358m (Rs 1,600 crore).

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi office is acting for exploration giant Cairn India, which is buying back up to 14.98% of its equity share capital for $930m (Rs 5,725 crore) from the open market through stock exchanges.

Deals round-up of more than a dozen recent instructions.

Luthra and Luthra Delhi general corporate partner Prof Anil Kumar Rai left the firm on Friday, after the headcount of the team he was heading at the firm gradually shrunk over the last few months.