Law firms

Amarchand Mangaldas has internally promoted 13 lawyers to partnership today, with an even split between the Mumbai and Delhi offices.

Khaitan & Co advised public sector undertaking Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) in its external commercial borrowing (ECB) of Rs 1,343 crore ($250m) from State Bank of India, Singapore which was advised by Baker & McKenzie Wong & Leow and Dua Associates.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi partner and head of tax Aseem Chawla has resigned, as the firm aims to refill the gap in its ranks.

Last month’s largest deals and the legal advisers that guided and benefited from them.

Norton Rose disputes of counsel Sherina Petit has been promoted to partnership at Norton Rose’s London office.

Bharucha & Partners advised Axis Bank that sold 25 per cent of its shares in Axis Asset Management to Amarchand Mangaldas-advised Schroders.

J Sagar Associates advised TVS Logistics Services, opposite AZB & Partners’ Mumbai and Delhi offices that respectively advised Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) on its first round of funding and Goldman Sachs on its second investment into the Indian logistics company that has plans to aggressively expand abroad.

UK firm Penningtons has promoted Saionton Basu to partner, just over one year after he had joined from Platinum Partners to build up its India practice.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) today filed its long-awaited appeal against the Madras High Court judgment that allowed foreign lawyers limited foreign law practice in India.

Amarchand Mangaldas has launched its Ahmedabad practice, inaugurating its Prahladnagar office today, relocating corporate partner Pankaj Agarwal full-time and Delhi litigation head Tejas Karia to start a dispute resolution practice part-time.

AZB & Partners advised Nasdaq-listed information technology services company iGate Corp in its Rs 1,400 crore ($271m) voluntary delisting of its Mumbai-based unit Patni computer systems, which was jointly advised by Wadia Ghandy and international law firm Hogan Lovells.

Amarchand Mangaldas and Luthra & Luthra have each racked up over $10bn worth of deals to top the M&A Indian mergermarket league table for the first quarter of 2012, displacing 2011 first quarter (Q1) frontrunner AZB & Partners.

Vijaya Sampath, group general counsel (GC) and adviser of almost nine years to India’s largest telecoms company Bharti Enterprises and former J Sagar Associates (JSA) partner, has joined Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan (LKS) as an equity partner yesterday to head its corporate practice in Delhi.

Exclusive: Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan (LKS) has opened a second office in Delhi and a new office in Pune, taking its total number of offices to seven and number of lawyers to 250.