London-headquartered magic circle law firm Allen & Overy (A&O) has promoted 2000 NLSIU Bangalore graduate and banking counsel Gautam Narasimhan to its partnership in Singapore.

Narasimhan was one of 19 new partners that were announced at A&O yesterday. He specialises in structured and leveraged finance with a focus on India, Indonesia and Singapore.

He commented: “A&O Singapore has been a great platform for both India and Indonesia banking work. In some ways it is unique in the market, and the attraction for me is to grow this practice and the platform that already exists.”

After completing his LLM from New York University (NYU) in 2001 as a Hauser Global Scholar, Narasimhan completed his training contract at Clifford Chance in London, then worked at US firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in London and moved to Singapore in 2006 with Latham & Watkins.

In 2010 he joined A&O where he regularly advises Indian or India-based banks, including Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, ICICI Bank, DBS, on deals with companies such as the Adani Group, GMR, Vedanta, Essar, Manipal, Suzlon.

Most recently he had completed a multi-billion dollar debt rescheduling facility for a major Indian conglomerate, according to A&O.

When still a student in 1996, Narasimhan had made it to the quarter finals of the Philip C Jessup International Law Moot in Washington; the world’s most prestigious moot court competition was won by NLSIU three years later in 1999 and last Sunday.

A&O broke off its long-standing best friend referral relationship with Indian law firm Trilegal late last year, citing a lack of progress in liberalisation of the Indian legal market.

Photo by williamcho