With no good reason to break with convention, Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and Luthra & Luthra gave the nod to three lawyers each to join the partnerships.
Amarchand has also bulked up in the banking and structured finance space with a UK in-house hire as a partner and Kochhar & Co has elevated one of its litigation partners into an equity share.
Indeed, the Indian transactional space seems healthy, and particularly private equity houses are waking up and flexing their muscle. Blackstone India, for example, has gifted Khaitan & Co several lucrative mandates in the past year.
A more unconventional story is that of two-year-old start-up firm RDA Legal. It has expanded with new partners but more unusually it has also entered into a best friends relationship with a French firm.
Points for thinking outside of the box and as an added bonus befriending a continental European firm is a nice USP to have and is less likely to upset existing Anglo-Saxon referral relationships.
Mysore legal process outsourcer SDD Global meanwhile proved that legal globalisation can be a double-edged sword, which US and UK lawyers should fear more perhaps than their Indian cousins. The LPO helped in winning a major US court victory for comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (of Ali G and Borat fame). The LPO claims that its victory came at a much lower price tag than what would have been possible from US lawyers.
Will all US court cases be pre-fought and won in India in 10 years time?
Food for thought as foreign firms are still on the back foot about the Chennai High Court writ petition against 31 international firms, which was first heard for admission today after a one-day delay. Join the debate and have your sub-judice say.
Blogs:
The legal blogging competition has seen a large number of quality blogs this week with several new faces joining with a bang.
Nandiireywal, an Indian lawyer arriving in London, has two first days of training contract at Colby Hewitt Richards LLP, examines why Indian lawyers go to the dark side on the Brain Drain Express and manages to convince UK graduate recruitment that mooting is for losers.
Bihari Babuu churns brains like butter from milk and asks through the lens of elegant allegory what legal philosophers have ever done for law students, while arguing for more practical training in social lawyering.
Legaldrift meanwhile dissects the legal controversies in a sport superstar Muslim marriage, decodes India's DNA legislation and looks at the psychology of suicide bombers and what the law tries to do.
Ever popular LegalPoet has struck a chord by revealing how to make "legal recruiters pounce on you like dogs on bones". Lovely image that.
Sss explains the magic trick of doing four things at the same time while actually doing less work.
Anirban1 writes about how you can get away with murder with the "idiot argument" and asks what to do if a court of record does not record.
Manishmin looks at questionable decisions and wonders whether the courts can really be trusted.