The newsletter is back after a two month break. Catch up on all legal news and happenings you may have missed.
Despite being India’s biggest firm, Amarchand has remained possibly the most ambitious. The firm finally unveiled its big 2018 plans to Legally India – click here to read the full scoop. Apart from heavy (some would argue too heavy) growth, the firm is kicking off with a new office in Chennai, to be followed by ones in Gujarat and Pune, and an international arbitration centre in Delhi. And there’s more on the cards.
Meanwhile, Amarchand offspring Argus and old-school Bombay firm Udwadia Udeshi performed one of the unlikeliest match-ups in living memory, merging into one national firm that is sure to mix things up.
The biggest recent industry bombshell was when ICICI Bank general counsel Pramod Rao announced his resignation. The insider track is that his foray into private practice will be equally surprising.
Juris Corp parted ways with two partners but welcomed two others, with one from Fox Mandal, which in turn faced attention from former colleagues and the police as it bid an Rs 8 crore adieu to its relationship with Little & Co.
The start-up scene continued to buzz. Verus became a five equity-partner NUJS-start-up behemoth with four new joiners, while ex-AZBer Souvik Ganguly’s Acuity Law closed its first deal and three youngsters set up the unusually-named and ambitious Kiaa LLP.
Legally India also examined in Mint the strange world of law firm liability insurance, which is a booming market despite the odds of an Indian lawyer getting sued is more unlikely than even many acts of God.
- Malpractice insurance catches on despite near-zero risk: Indian law firms get up to $50m cover
- The Rule of Lawyers: Examining legal advisers’ de facto legal immunity in India
- Indian law firms: Too young to live
Top law firm stories
- LI-Mint exclusive: Rs. 1000cr Amarchand-BCG plan revealed, analysed
- Breaking: 4 NUJS partners join 4-city start-up Verus from courts and Bharucha
- Amarchand spreads: Chennai with Kochhar head; Gujarat office in June; Pune by 2013
- Breaking: Little & Co, FoxMandal settle Rr 8 cr break-up as Fox restarts Mumbai
- Juris Corp leaver Vandana Sekhri joins Amarchand; +3 associate hires
- Juris Corp Delhi snags FoxMandal lit partner Sandeep Mahapatra
- Majmudar lures Norton Rose counsel, ex-Amarchand partner Sabeshan back to India projects
- Amity Noida grads start up possibly youngest LLP ever with unusual name
Law firm promotion season
There are general jitters about the economy and many firms are privately cautious on the prospects of internal advancement, lateral hiring and also law school recruitments.
Nevertheless, some have come out of the blocks with their new financial year partner promotions, with equity being a popular buzzword: four (including two equity) at Naik Naik & Co (which also opened a Delhi office), two promos and two laterals at Wadia Ghandy, one more at ALMT (Subhash Jadhav), one associate partner at Crawford Bayley (Renuka Shetty), one (equity) at Majmudar & Co (now Majmudar & Partners), and only one at AZB Delhi and Trilegal so far. Amarchand and JSA are still to announce.
Finally, a grand total of none at Khaitan & Co. However, Khaitan has on paper been one of the fastest growers of all – 70 per cent in three years, the vast majority of which came through laterals. (Khaitan is also following Amarchand strategy and is eying up Chennai, Hyderabad offices).
At venerable yet dynamic Wadia Ghandy it has been even more rapid with a 77 per cent headcount increase in only two years.
Plus, five more firms including HSA, Bhasin, Vaish, MV Kini and Fox also promoted at various levels.
More lateral hires
- Juris Corp replenishes lit with Hariani disputes head Ranjit Shetty
- AZB Delhi promotes Sankhari with NGO past to corporate partner
- MV Kini starts tax with ex-E&Y start-up PhD, adds one Hyderabad partner
- Ropes & Gray London reels in NLS ‘00 alum Damodaran as partner
- Mayer Brown London SA Pallavi Bedi comes home as JSA projects partner
- BakerMacs Thailand SA Rupinder Malik joins JSA as partner
Foreign law firms
The Madras High Court finally decided on the liberalisation of the legal market, deciding not very much at all but keeping both sides fairly happy and paying arguably less heed to logic.
LPOs
Legal process outsourcing had a special place in the Chennai writ, in that it was recognised as an anomaly worth examining (but not by the court). A little earlier, Legally India had reported on CPA Global’s restructuring of its LPO business as India headcounts plummeted before its $1.45bn sale.
The courts, in arbitration, about politics
The Court Witness chronicles returned with glimpses into the future of India’s most powerful organisation, and at the dark underbelly of the area called service law, that no one is ever taught.
- India, meet your future boss: CJI-to-be Altamas Kabir vs SH Kapadia (profiled by Court Witness)
- The murky & merciful practice area that law school never teaches: service law
The Delhi High Court told non-AORs that the existing AOR monopoly is fine as it is.
Legally India revealed with Mint that the Debt Recovery Tribunals are chock-a-block, much like every court in India: Pending DRT cases spike by 70% in 2011 to Rs. 1.57 trn amid slowdown, inefficiency.
At the Supreme Court meanwhile, pendency of cases increased by more than 10 per cent in 11 months. Bad situation.
Abhinav Bhushan, PH Parekh, Vijay Sondhi and Adish Agarwala took their places, respectively, as first Indian ICA Paris lawyer, Padma Shree awardee, first law firm lawyer at the Delhi Bar Council vice chair, and Delhi bar council chairman.
- Sr adv Aggarwala wins chair in Delhi Bar Council political powerplay vs Khosla, ors
- Paris ICC Arbitration Court vows to ramp up India as first Indian lawyer joins from US LLM
CJI Kapadia and four other judges have been (and still are) mulling over the freedom of the press to report happenings in court. Read on to find out why Kapadia’s SC is putting the media on trial.
Budget 2012
Legally India brought a blow-by-blow account of the FM’s soporific Budget Speech 2012, though the really interesting bits were harder to spot. The retrospective Vodafone tax furore has already caused a holy war, and the service tax issue too is not likely to rest soon.
- Budget 2012: Court work exempt from service tax, law firms stay in net
- Breaking live updates: Vodafone lawyer says retrospective amendment of tax rules unconstitutional, won’t stand up; ALMT partner says is fine
- Opinion: Why the Budget’s shots at Vodafone should be seen as a constitutional crisis
- Budget 2012: Live blog for lawyers
Deals, cases, instructions
It was a season of firsts, be it India’s first Institutional Placement Program powered by Amarchand, S&R and Jones Day or the first ever challenge to a much criticised law, the first tryst of AZB & Partners with the world of luxury fashion PE, or the first reported Reliance corporate deal for K-Law. JSA and Naik helped MCX-SX out of a SEBI ban, while Amarchand and Luthra met Sterlite-Sesa Goa and Vedanta post relaxed CCI merger controls..
- Khaitan powers Indo-Japan courier JV
- Luthra for PE triple-team in Rs. 130cr Manappuram gold stake with Amarchand
- AZB first for Louis Vuitton PE in Fabindia Rs. 275 cr sales with Luthra, Menon, Vig
- Desai & D, ELP, KhaitanCo pave $300m Piramal-IDFC-Canada road building JV
- Breaking: JSA, Naik win Bombay HC order for MCX-SX against SEBI ban
- First reported Reliance deal for K Law in $450m Sibur JV with Linklaters
- Khaitan, Travers Smith, DLA Piper and Freshfields sell LPO CPA Global to Cinven
- Amarchand Delhi bags Vedanta $14bn Sterlite-Sesa Goa restructuring with Luthra
17 deals in brief: $1bn Reliance US notes with AZB; D&D, Amarchand for $41m Fidelity; Voda-Piramal reprise; Alliance Vishnu +1 & more… - Read parts of first writ challenging censorious IT Act Intermediaries Rules in Kerala
- Amarchand, Universal Legal power Numeric’s $171m UPS sale to Legrand
- S&R, Jones Day, Amarchand see through promoter-friendly IPP debut
- Amarchand helps Davis Polk on Indian leg of $449m NEC telecoms deal
- 15 deals & cases in brief: Luthra for Yahoo!; Debt CM boom, private equity, takeovers, JVs, more…
Legal Education
The All India Bar Exam (AIBE) and the SC made advocates wait, wait and wait for an exam result that was not too great. The HRD ministry put an end to the legal education tussle with BCI.
Sponsored post: LSAT—India 2012 – The entrance test for more than 40 law colleges in India
Legally India did NLSIU’s uninspiring KT Thomas report, and fired off RTI applications to 7 national law schools as part of its new law school investigation project (first results in soon on LI!). And Jindal and Indiana Universities teamed up for a shortened LLB / JD degree.
Nalsar this, that and gate
Nalsar Hyderabad continued to have most of the fun in the last two months, bringing home the cup of the prestigious Vis Vienna Moot and the Oxford Media Moot, and a BCI moot trophy. On the admin front, Nalsar got itself a new vice chancellor (VC) in Prof Faizan Mustafa, as the present VC Veer Singh is heading for pastures new and registrar Acharyulu Sridhar has been replaced by KVS Sharma. Plus, the first ever Nalsar sports fest will be coming soon…
Mooting Premier League
A lot of action in the Mooting Premier League as NLSIU Bangalore still leads by a large margin but NLU Jodhpur and others are catching up fast now.
- CNLU Patna wins 2nd BCI moot of the season defeating CLC Delhi
- NLU-J overtakes NLU-D for 2nd MPL place chased by GLC after win at Amity moot
- NUJS trumps Nalsar in NLU Jodhpur Antitrust moot; Nalsar bests NLSIU in the Vis pre-moot
- NLIU Bhopal organises virtual Vis practice moots with US & Canadian law schools ahead of All India Moot Organisers conference
- Jindal Law School bests RGNUL in ULC Bangalore moot
- Nalsar, CUSAT win BCI-Nirma & Surana Tech moots; NLU Delhi overtakes NLU Jodhpur in MPL3
- Mega mooting weekend aftermath: NLSIU mooting revival in 200+ MPL points as GLC outranks NUJS; RMLNLU, Christ rise
- MPL Update: GLC wins NUJS-HS moot; NLSIU wins GIMC at GNLU; CLC wins at KLA; Oz wins DM Harish
- Breaking: NLU Jodhpur wins US Stetson moot, confirms NLU-J convenor
- NLU J, NUJS, GNLU win laurels at Vis HK, Stetson, Frankfurt, GH Raisoni moots
- 18 law schools agree to follow moot in same way at the Moot Conveners Conference at NLIU
- Indian triple whammy abroad as Jindal, RMLNLU win ELSA Jakarta + Leiden moots; Symbi Noida triumphs at Pro Bono Enviro
Fun ‘n’ games
Legally India also had a little fun in the past two months, what with the beginning of April, the return of Aunty and Uncle, and some meme-ing.
- Aunty & Uncle: Can worried, non-elite law schoolite get corporate law job without legal godfather?
- [APRIL FOOLS’ DAY] Breaking: BCI weakens opposition to entry of foreign lawyers, allows firangs lower court practice
- [APRIL FOOLS’ DAY] NLSIU alums, BCI to start National Mooting Academy for Indian global mooting dominance
And finally, dear corporate law firm lawyers, dear advocates. Have you ever struggled to explain to your non-lawyer friends what you do? Does your mum know what you do? Seniors, clients and spouses do not seem to have much of an insight either? Click here to explain why.
Legally Wired News Round-ups
Top photo by Felix O,
other photos under creative commons license have details available on linked-to pages.
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