Law firms
Less wedding and more divorce, four former FoxMandal Little Delhi partners have decided to go it alone and start up their own full-service practice in Delhi, which they hope to grow into a top-ten local and national firm.

Bangalore-headquartered firm Universal Legal is a little further along that road and has opened up an office in Mumbai with one of its partners from home.

Like other firms, boutique competition practice and Linklaters best friend Dhall Law Chambers is also putting its faith in work created by the new Competition Commission of India and has recruited two UK LLM graduates to help deal with expected instructions.

Hiring from the UK has been turning into a bit of a fashion, particularly in the competition field. Find out why and whether Amarchand wants to turn into a global firm.

Deals
The IPO bandwagon has continued in the last month and South India is interestingly seeing a raft of companies looking to tap the markets, helping Amarchand solidify its lead in the latest IPO league table.

Meanwhile, JSA and Trilegal have brought Heineken beer to India, which has been just another legal instruction to drop off the back of the Heineken-Carlsberg takeover saga of Scottish & Newcastle two years ago.

The speedy courts
For a change the Delhi High Court has been moving very fast.

Only two weeks after Delhi High Court started a dedicated arbitration centre it has already referred three cases there, which is a good first step in working on its chunky backlog.

Delhi also turned one of its High Courts digital this week, experimenting at making a paperless judicial system a reality. For anyone who has ever seen the mountains of files stacked up in most Indian court rooms, this could seem a tall order but lawyers are hopeful about the development.

Presumably these moves will also be welcome to law minister Moily, if he wants to fulfil his latest vow in the Lok Sabha to cut the pendency of cases from 15 years to three and to turn the Government into the "thinnest litigant".

And finally…
Against the odds, the venerable Bombay solicitors profession has admitted 11 new members this week who passed the gruelling test that literally takes years of preparation. However, 175 test-takers failed.

Three others also failed last weekend, with Delhi T20 cricket league favourites Dua Associates, Luthra & Luthra and Trilegal crashing out of the competition in riveting matches. Bhasin & Co, Desai & Diwanji, Titus & Co and Saikrishna have reached the semi-final stage.

And in the most legal of sports, School of Excellence Chennai, Symbiosis Pune and Nalsar Hyderabad all picked up points in the Government Law College Mumbai Nani Palkhiwala Tax Moot. Things are getting tight at the top of the Mooting Premier League.