Law firms

Juris Corp partner Freddy R Daruwala has joined ex-colleague Huzefa Nasikwala’s eight month old Juris Corp breakaway Nasikwala Law offices (NLO) as an equity partner yesterday. Daruwala will be heading the Mumbai-based firm’s Taxation and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) practice.

Exclusive: Former AZB & Partners and HSA Advocates lawyer Souvik Ganguly, who started up Acuity Law late last year, has closed his first venture capital (VC) advisory transaction and taken on new office space in Mumbai.

Khaitan & Co., alongside Herbert Smith, advised Russian petrochemical giant Sibur in sale of 74.9 per cent equity for Rs 22 bn ($450 m) to Reliance Industries for setting up a joint venture (JV) Greenfield project manufacturing synthetic rubber. Reliance Industries was advised in-house.

Khaitan & Co, alongside Travers Smith, advised legal process outsourcing (LPO) company CPA Global in its acquisition by European buyout firm Cinven which was advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi office has scooped the mandate to merge Vedanta’s Sterlite Industries unit with Sesa Goa to decrease the mining conglomerate’s debt.

Former Juris Corp partner Vandana Sekhri, who resigned from 31 January, has joined Amarchand Mangaldas in Mumbai as senior consultant in the team of managing partner Cyril Shroff.

LI-Mint exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI), regulator of the legal profession, has indicated it might appeal against Tuesday’s Madras high court ruling allowing foreign lawyers to visit the country to advise clients on foreign law.

LI-Mint Exclusive: Legal process outsourcing (LPO) and intellectual property (IP) management firm CPA Global Ltd, which is being fully acquired by UK-based Cinven Partners Llp for an estimated $1.45 billion (Rs 7,135 crore), has internally restructured the LPO business unit that failed to hit growth targets in India and saw headcount reductions and senior executives’ departure.

17 deals and cases in brief this week, spanning M&A, a raft of financings, private equity, debt and equity capital markets and litigation.

Exclusive: SRGR Law Offices have filed a first information report (FIR) against Fox Mandal, whose offices were investigated by police today, alleging that Fox’s December 2011 FIR was mala fide and that FoxMandal had supplied false information to police officers and public servants.

Juris Corp has hired former FoxMandal litigation co-head and partner Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra for its Delhi office.

The Chennai High Court has cleared foreign lawyers from flying in and out of India to advise on foreign law, as well as the operations of legal process outsourcing (LPO) outfits, although it added that foreign lawyers would not be allowed to practice domestic law unless they registered with the Bar Council of India (BCI).

In today’s edition of Mint: Legally India reveals Cyril and Shardul Shroff’s, and Boston Consulting Group’s masterplan to take the firm to the next level of a Rs 1,000 crore ($203m) turnover, while securing the future of future generations of the family.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff will start a separate company that will offer virtual international arbitration services from India, and includes its own arbitration rules and state-of-the-art technology.

Former Amarchand Mangaldas partner and Norton Rose of counsel Prashanth Sabeshan has joined Majmudar & Co as partner in the Bangalore office today.

Exclusive: Two-and-a-half-year old Argus Partners has merged with Mumbai-headquartered Udwadia & Udeshi to create 12-partner, 60-lawyer national firm, which will be managed by Argus co-founder Krishnava Dutt.