Law firms

MMB Legal advised education company Teamlease Services on its Rs 100 crore ($22.6m) fundraising ICICI Venture and Gaja Capital, advised by Wadia Ghandy Bangalore and DSK Legal in Mumbai.

Amarchand Mangaldas and P&A Law Offices have advised on the buy-out of Mumbai-based Smartlink Network’s cabling systems business Digilink by French company Schneider Electricals for Rs 503 crore ($115m).

Exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI) is to take 20 lawyers on secondment from law firms to help it regulate transactional law practice better, said BCI chairman Gopal Subramanium and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) chairman Lalit Bhasin on Friday.

Exclusive: SN Gupta & Co has rebranded its transactional practice to SNG & Partners, shifted into new Delhi corporate offices and has hired former Ashurst India office heads Ashok Mubayi and Preet Malik as senior advisers to build up the firm’s nuclear practice.

Exclusive: Vaish Associates Advocates has promoted principal associate and chartered accountant Rohit Jain to partnership in Delhi’s direct tax practice one year after his law graduation.

Crawford Bayley & Co has advised construction company CNH Global NV on the full buy-out of Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T’s) stake in joint venture partnership L&T-CASE Equipment for around Rs 200 crore ($45m).

Exclusive: Bhasin & Co has hired retired Slaughter and May partner, former International Bar Association (IBA) president and ex English-county cricketer Francis Neate as a part-time senior cricket & BD consultant and to shore up the firm’s cricket team next season.

Exclusive: Trilegal Delhi lawyers Harsh Pais and Yogesh Singh were elevated to the firm’s salaried partnership, as the firm overshot its fee-earner bonus budget after having instituted a new system.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co has internally promoted four lawyers to equity partner level, while also adding three associate partners in the now finalised career rung.

Khaitan & Co, Platinum Partners and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have advised on a majority stake acquisition of Mumbai-based agrochemicals company Devidayal Sales by Japanese Arysta LifeScience.

Exclusive: Platinum Partners has promoted Mumbai senior associate Yashasvi Mohanram to its partnership, who joined the firm last year from White & Case Singapore.

Khaitan & Co and Trilegal have advised on US-based International Paper’s 53 per cent acquisition of Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills (APPM) for $247m in cash along with $62m as seller’s non-compete fee.

Exclusive: DSK Legal is parting ways with Delhi partners Gopika Pant and Piyoosh Gupta over strategic differences on future growth, with one more lateral partner set to join the firm in its new larger Delhi office space only several weeks after hiring a team 15 lawyers.

Bhasin & Co managing partner and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) president Lalit Bhasin has vowed to safeguard “freedom of expression” and “promote arts” as the newly-appointed chairman of the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal.

AZB & Partners’ Mumbai and Delhi offices advised on both sides of the financial services joint venture between India’s largest private sector enterprise Reliance Industries and US investment group D E Shaw with Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling.

AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Sullivan & Cromwell have advised on Goldman Sachs’s complete acquisition of Indian asset management company Benchmark Asset for a reported Rs 130 crore to expand its foothold in the six trillion rupee Indian fund management industry.