Law firms

Exclusive: IndusLaw has promoted Hyderabad principal associate Satya Sree Akella to salaried partner effective 1 April.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Bangalore office advised Japan’s largest non-life insurer Mitsui Sumitomo in its Rs 2,731 crore ($530m) purchase of 26 per cent in the joint venture (JV) of Indian insurer Max India and US insurer New York Life Insurance, which were respectively advised by AZB & Partners and Paul Weiss, and Platinum Partners and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Exclusive in today’s Mint: Kochhar & Co has secured a Japanese Gaikokuho-Jimu-Bengoshi (registered foreign lawyer) licence and opened an office in Tokyo with one Indian lawyer, while also hoping for permission to open a stand-alone local law office in Dubai.

Exclusive in today’s Mint: Pramod Rao, ICICI Bank’s general counsel (GC) of more than seven years, will join young law firm IndusLaw as an equity partner to set up its Mumbai office.

Fourteen law firms kept busy in a sideways economy with 14 deals in corporate, private equity and banking and finance. Find out what the industry has been up to.

Senior associate and partner promotions at 5 firms, including three new partners HSA Advocates, one partner promotion at Bhasin & Co, two new Vaish senior associates, one MV Kini partner and two FoxMandal laterals and 10 senior-level associates.

In today’s edition of Mint: On the morning of 10 August 2011, senior lawyer Harish Salve looked upset as he entered Chief Justice of India (CJI) S.H. Kapadia’s courtroom, holding a newspaper that had published an article on a case he was arguing in the Supreme Court.

Hariani & Co litigation head and partner Ranjit Shetty has joined Juris Corp in Mumbai.

Majmudar & Co has rebranded as Majmudar & Partners after promoting February lateral hire Prashanth Sabeshan into its equity partnership, which now stands at six partners.

Exclusive: Crawford Bayley associate Renuka Shetty has been promoted to associate partner level, growing the ranks of salaried partners to seven.

Exclusive: Wadia Ghandy & Co has hired two laterals as partner from in-house and from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, and promoted two associates, growing its partnership to 28.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co has not promoted any partners internally in its annual promotion round after internally restructuring its associate and partnership track, nine associates were promoted to senior associate level and one lateral associate partner joined in Mumbai.

Exclusive: Naik Naik & Co has opened a Delhi office and promoted two partners to equity partnership and two senior associates to salaried partner.

Exclusively: Khaitan & Co is actively scouting to open Chennai and Hyderabad offices as Amarchand Mangaldas lateral partner Ganesh Prasad started in the Bangalore office yesterday with a remit to focus on South India.

Exclusive: Barely one-year-old start-up Verus Advocates will convert to equity partnership tomorrow with Bharucha & Partners corporate senior associates Dipankar Bandyopadhyay and Jay Parikh joining in Mumbai, while litigators Rishad Chowdhury and Sourav Bhagat will join in Delhi and Kolkata respectively.