Law firms

Trilegal, Amarchand Mangaldas, Singh & Singh, Link Legal, AZB & Partners, Vichar Partners, Universal Legal, Dua Associates, DSK Legal, White & Case, Nishith Desai & Associates, Desai & Diwanji, and more in the latest top instructions for law firms and lawyers…

Exclusive: Vineetha MG, who has been at AZB & Partners for 11 years and made partner there in 2006, will leave the firm at the end of this month to consider career options.

White & Case has elected 28 lawyers to partner globally, including two non-Indian lawyers who are connected to the firm’s India practice. In New York, intellectual property (IP) associate Raj Gandesha became a partner, while in Singapore local partner Nandakumar Ponniya was elevated to the global partnership.

Gandesha is a Canadian national qualified to practice in New York, who has been previously involved in events with the US-India Business Council and studies about the IP landscape in India, according to several websites.

Ponniya is a Singaporean national and qualified lawyer who is triple qualified in New York, England and Singapore and specialises in arbitration, having advised in various India-related disputes. [White & Case press release]

Exclusive: Fox Mandal Delhi’s London founding partner Ajit Mishra has resigned from the firm, as the firm has left its old office and moved into a new one in the UK’s financial capital.

Vaish Associates advised auto-parts maker Amtek India in raising Rs 375 crore ($70mn) through issue of 2.5 per cent foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCB). Linklaters and Trilegal advised the Singapore-incorporated DBS bank which was the guarantor, and the bank’s Indian branch which was the lead manager in the issue.

Vaish Associates Delhi partner Satwinder Singh with principal associates Manish Tully and Sushma Mathur and associate Sougata Kundu acted for Amtek India, which issued FCCB convertible at Rs 103.005 per equity share of the company according to Post Jagran.

Trilegal Mumbai partner Srinivas Parthasarthy with senior associate Anil Choudhary and associates Priyanka Kumar and Smriti Bahety, and Linklaters Singapore counsel Aditya Shroff acted for DBS Bank India and Singapore.

The issue, raised on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is Amtek’s second round of FCCB-fund raising in less than six months. Vaish Associates also advised the company in the first round in April 2012, when funds worth Rs 650 crore ($130m) were raised on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Exclusive: Advaya Legal, the two-and-a-half-year-old firm started by former GVK in-houser Ramesh Vaidyanathan, has hired its third partner with ex-BG in-house counsel Smriti Subramanian, as the firm hopes to spread its footprint beyond Mumbai.

Baker & McKenzie’s global India practice will be headed by the firm’s Singapore partner of 10 years Ashok K Lalwani effective this month, after David Jacobs, who was the India practice head since 2005, retired as the firm’s partner. Lalwani was already heading the firm’s Asia Pacific and US securities practice.

Desai & Diwanji advised hospitality group Interglobe hotels, on its multi-million dollar purchase of the issue share capital of steel maker Isha Steel Treatment, which was advised by Wadia Ghandy.

Desai & Dewanji Bombay partners Jai Diwanji and Ruzbeh Mistry, associate partner Sidhharth Mody, senior associate Shakti Singh Champawat and associate Karni Singh acted for the hotel developer, which is a joint venture between conglomerate Interglobe Enterprises and international hotel chain Accor.

Wadia Ghandy Mumbai partner Dhawal Mehta, senior associate Rati Lodha and associate Shruti Manglik acted for Isha Steel Treatment.

Interesting article about how female executives in California’s tech industry work flexibly, successfully, and how women still lag behind men at the top of most careers, through a mixture of gender psychology, predispositions, and family time. Anything that could be applicable to the Indian legal profession here?

Without a lot of official committees and HR red tape, Silicon Valley is figuring out the single most vexing problem for ambitious working women, one everyone thought was unsolvable: how to let them spend time with their children without ruining their careers…

In a chart comparing the "career cost of family" in elite workplaces – meaning the price people pay for taking time off – the economist Claudia Goldin floats the tech companies high above the rest. Women and men there can take time off and not take a big salary hit. Other industries, by contrast, suffer from "inertia" or "resistance to change"…

She was just doing that thing young women tend to do, which is hesitate before she'd even got started. "I watch it all day long," Sandberg told me. "Women are making room for kids they don't have, years before they try to get pregnant. Then, when they do get pregnant, they would be coming back to a job they no longer want." The men, meanwhile, are "super-aggressive and focused. They are in your office every day. 'Can I do that? Can I lead this?' They don't have to be talked into things."

[The Guardian]

Amarchand Mangaldas and senior counsel Gopal Subramanium acted for YSR Congress party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to whom the Supreme Court today denied bail in the money-laundering case against him.

Mint profiles Khaitan & Co Kolkata partner Pradeep Kumar (Pintu) Khaitan and his son Haigreve – one of the rainmakers in the firm’s Mumbai office:

From his 13th floor office in Mumbai’s One Indiabulls Centre, the practice that 42-year-old Khaitan leads for Khaitan and Co. is very different from, but also similar to, the one that his father Pradeep Kumar Khaitan is celebrated for. Pradeep Khaitan, based in Kolkata, is also a senior partner in the 101-year-old firm.

Many of India’s hoary business groups trace their origin back to Kolkata, and the city’s blue-blooded Marwaris are extremely particular about whom they deal with. If Mumbai’s business groups placed their trust through the 1990s and 2000s (and continue to do so, in some cases) in the famed 3Ks (Hemandra Kothari, Nimesh Kampani and Uday Kotak), then Kolkata’s business houses placed theirs in another K, “Pintu”, or Pradeep Kumar Khaitan.

Plus article delves into a few more of the Khaitan’s dealmaking connections and abilities. [Mint]

Breaking: Law firms Allen & Overy and Trilegal have ended their five-year best friend relationship, according to a press release from both firms.

The latest deals in one place: Khaitan for Kingfisher, Heidelberg, Hutchison Whampoa | AMSS for Mitsui, Schneider, Alstom, Siemens, RTL, IDFC | Siemens: AMSS-Jones Day & more.

Former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) executive director Usha Narayanan joined Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai as of counsel in the general corporate and financial regulatory practice today after she retired from SEBI in June this year, having served with the regulator for 21 years.

Exclusive: ALMT Legal co-founding partner Ananjan Mitter will retire at the end of this month to pursue entrepreneurial ambitions unrelated to the legal field.

A UK law firm insourced an Indian advocate to London to answer its South Asian clients’ marital and property disputes’ queries in a town centre-canopy setting and a “£15-a-pop” model, guarding him against all direct business-contact with its clients.

The law firm charged clients £70-80 per hour. So, Mr Singh and his clients put their thinking hats on... [GlobalPost]