Law firms

SN Gupta & Co and one-year-old start-up India Legal have advised on Duet India Hotels' Rs 120 crore ($26m) fund investment in a Hyderabad hotel project with L&T Phoenix Infoparks.

Thakker & Thakker and venture capital (VC) boutique law firms Sand Hill Counsel and Menon Associates have advised on the series A investment into a Hyderabad mobile TV start-up, giving several angel investors a partial exit.

Vaish Associates has recruited two indirect tax law practitioners from Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan in a bid to expand its indirect tax law practice.

Trilegal will be the second law firm to move into Lower Parel's One Indiabulls Centre in November, joining Khaitan & Co in the same Mumbai office block. Trilegal is also moving into its long-planned new office in Delhi this month and preparing for its move in Bangalore.

Hemant Sahai Associates has recruited an AZB senior associate as a partner in Mumbai, after recently merging with Paras Kuhad & Associates to create a national firm called PHA Advocates.

Delhi firm LexCounsel has advised the LeapStart Trust in setting up a Rs 50 crore ($11m) close-ended venture capital fund, that aims to capitalise on the resurgent market opportunities in India in various sectors.

Khaitan & Co's Mumbai office is moving from the Ballard Estate area to Lower Parel, where it has taken a lease of a large space allowing it to double in size in future.

Former Khaitan & Co partner Gauri Rasgotra has rejoined the firm's Delhi office after working for two years in the US as the head of the George Washington University Law School's India Studies Center.

Luthra & Luthra has closed two project finance deals out of Delhi and Mumbai this week, acting on the Rs 1,497 crores ($325m) Gujarat road development project and the Rs 4,000 crore ($850m) syndicated term loan for Cairn India to develop oil fields.

Legally India research has revealed Amarchand Mangaldas as the top IPO dealmaker of this financial year so far, while Khaitan & Co and Luthra & Luthra are in close contest for the runner-up spot. International and domestic firms are competing in a tightly bunched mid-field of the ranking.

Paras Kuhad & Associates' ex-Mumbai head has started a new firm under the banner Vidhii Partners, along with one partner and three associates from the firm which merged with Hemant Sahai earlier this month.

AZB & Partners is sending four associates for training at Clifford Chance's European training centres as the start of a more organised "knowledge transfer" programme between the best friend firms.

Delhi-based firm Priti Suri & Associates has moved into a new office that is more than twice its previous size, which is the first step in its plans to evolve out of a sole proprietorship model.

For the first time this year, Desai & Diwanji and Khaitan & Co are leading the third quarter Indian M&A rankings both by value and volume of deals, pushing Amarchand Mangaldas two places down mergermarket's value league table compared to three months ago.

A senior associate has rejoined Lall & Sethi Advocates as partner after a two-year stint at Luthra & Luthra.

Amarchand Mangaldas has acted on 70 per cent of qualified institutional placements (QIPs) in the first half of this financial year, with international firms, AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates and Crawford Bayley mopping up the rest.