Law firms

Desai & Diwanji has again reclaimed its throne as the busiest M&A firm in India having acted on 33 deals in the first three quarters of the year with Khaitan & Co also laying down improved M&A figures, while AZB & Partners, Talwar Thakore Associates and S&R Associates harvested the biggest value deals, also benefitting Linklaters and Allen & Overy.

Amarchand Mangaldas has promoted eight principal associates to partnership in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, hired White & Case associate Raghubir Menon as a partner and promoted Irish competition lawyer Paku Khan as a partner-equivalent director.

Exclusive: Naik Naik & Co and securities start-up boutique Prism Partners Advocates have entered into an exclusive alliance under the Naik brand name.

Four senior counsel and Naik in SLP against immovable property rental service tax; AZB Bangalore Muthoot debentures; Universal-Wadia Ghandy Pizza Hut deal; Infrastructure India windfarm buy with 3 foreign firms and KhaiCo, MMB; ANM for Godrej in cyber squatter; Rs 200 crore P&A Kemrock buy; Amarchand Essar delisting.

Corporate recruiter ICICI Bank has increased its basic pay package for new recruiters by almost one and a half lakh rupees taking the basic annual package to 10.5 lakh, as Bharucha & Partners, Juris Corp and Majmudar & Co hiked their fresher pay. Tatva Legal kicked off its first law school recruitment season with packages of Rs 8 lakh.

Yesterday’s closed-door afternoon meeting between UK justice secretary Kenneth Clarke, Indian law minister Salman Kursheed and Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Ashok Parija stopped short of reaching an agreement on the entry of foreign law firms but the countries would trial cooperation on the legal education front for the next six months.

Former India Law Services (ILS) associate and Symbiosis Law School graduate Aakash Phadnis project finance and intellectual property (IP) start-up in Pune has recently started a tie-up in Delhi and hopes to open in Mumbai soon.

Amarchand goes down under for $1.3bn GVK coal mine buy with Minters, Cliffords; Ex-AZBer’s Vishnu gets busy with Credit Suisse; Vaish hits the capital markets; JSA, KhaiCo, Amarchand disinvest in NYSE-Co; Amarchand restructures Alstom; and Naik gets a John Doe order.

Amarchand on Fortis mammoth internal restructuring, and Alfa Laval delisting; Desai & Diwanji and Seth Dua on two related private equity injections; Khaitan & Co gets close to Raiffeisen; JSA helps Naukri owner expand online reach to Zomato and beyond; MDP gets Cox & Kings out of Maharaja Express pickle for now; JSA and MD&T Partners get Indians to make hoses with Spaniards.

Delhi-headquartered law firm Khaitan Jayakar Sud and Vohra (KJSV) has rebranded itself to KS Partners as it relaunched its Mumbai office to focus on niche practice areas, while its former Mumbai partner Mohan Jayakar left to start his own firm.

AZB & Partners Delhi and P&A Associates advised on the sale of AppLabs to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) for as much as Rs 1,200 crore ($253m).

Exclusive: DSK Legal’s Delhi office has scored the role advising Japanese telecoms major Softbank Corp on its $200m strategic investment in Bangalore-based mobile ad network InMobi, alongside four international firms.

Exclusive: Former Remfry & Sagar patents head and Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan (LKS) partner Dr Sanjay Kumar has left to start his own intellectual property (IP) law firm Perfexio Legal fulfilling entrepreneurial ambitions.

Exclusive: Project finance specialist India Law Services (ILS) has opened office its fourth office in Bangalore with former State Bank of India (SBI) lawyer as its head in a bid to capitalise on market opportunities in southern India.

Kenneth Clarke, the UK’s Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor who will visit India in the coming weeks, said at a speech today that it was in the interests of Indian business to open up the legal sector to foreign law firms or suffer because of “restricted domestic legal provision”.

Naik Naik & Co has represented Bollywood actor Imran Khan and a student in their Bombay High Court writ petition challenging Maharashtra’s increase of the minimum drinking age to 25 years.