best friends

Those who were predicting that the AZB-Clifford Chance break-up would be the beginning of the end for best friends everywhere had reason to think again this week.

Exclusive: Allen & Overy (A&O) and its Indian best friend firm Trilegal have extended their preferred referral arrangement indefinitely after having first entered into it for a limited three-year term.

From today Indian law firms will have to get used to AZB being officially single again, Legally India can reveal.

Clifford Chance and AZB broke off their best friendship late last night, which means that global CC rivals will again be more comfortable approaching AZB with referrals.

“I don’t think there is any single international firm out there which has the ability to sustain any firm like ours [in terms of referrals],” one AZB lawyer summed up eloquently last week.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners and Clifford Chance broke off their best friend relationship yesterday night to become “good friends” after both firms saw fewer referrals than expected and legal market liberalisation became more unlikely than when they first entered into the relationship two years ago.

Exclusive: Delhi-based legal process outsourcing (LPO) firm Lex Forska Solutions LLP is becoming an LPO-cum-law firm also catering to domestic clients after entering into an exclusive referral alliance with Silicon Valley immigration boutique Shah Peerally Law Group PC.

After a long slumber, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fired its first warning shot across the bow of corporate India this week, allegedly slapping Kingfisher Airlines with a maximum fine of Rs 1 crore for not having played along with investigations.

Kochhar & Co has entered into two best-friend alliances with law firms in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the firm said in a press release.

Kochhar & Co's former technology and media law partner Rodney Ryder who started up IP and IT boutique practice Scriboard in April has entered into a strategic alliance with legal process outsourcing (LPO) company Overlegen.

Spanish national law firm Garrigues and Dua Associates have entered into a "non-exclusive cooperation agreement" to "organise seminars, edit publications and develop secondment programmes".

Start-up firm RDA Legal has signed a best friends agreement with French-international law firm DS Avocats and has expanded with one lateral Delhi partner and one internal Kolkata promotion.

Two partners from Linklaters have resigned to join its Indian best friend firm Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) as equity partners.

The firm has also promoted two of its associates to non-equity partner level and put in place a lockstep system.

Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham has always exhibited infectious enthusiasm for India. Legally India talks to him about the perennial joke of liberalisation, offshoring, India's legal future and nine months of best friendship with AZB & Partners.

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.

Vaish Associates Advocates has formed a best-friends relationship with Chinese-Singaporean firm Dacheng Central Chambers (DCC).

Trilegal co-founding partner Anand Prasad is candid about the fact that the firm has lacked significant expertise in capital markets but the firm may be on a path to plugging that hole - and others.

Trilegal has hired a capital markets partner from its best friend Allen & Overy (A&O), to join the firm's Mumbai office and strengthen the referral relationship.

For an Indian firm, going under the wing of an international firm is not necessarily as appealing as some might suppose and could even be downright dangerous.

Khaitan & Co will take a lawyer from UK international firm Eversheds on a three-month secondment in September, reported The Lawyer.

Phoenix Legal has denied that it has a best friends tie-up with UK international firm Lovells, after a press report linked the two today.

Clifford Chance is seconding the head partner of its India practice group to its best friend AZB & Partners.

Clifford Chance project finance partner Chris Wyman (pictured) will relocate to AZB's Mumbai office this month and will spend at least several months there to improve the integration between the firms.

Wyman said that he would stay "as long as it takes" and added: "It is all about maximising the opportunities – if you just say nice words and do nothing else, you will soon cease to be useful."