in-house counsel

After joining The Walt Disney Company India as associate principal counsel from J Sagar Associates (JSA), Naina Chhugani was quickly disabused of the notion that in-house is nothing but a post box. Instead, as studios and TV content head, she now knows the media business “inside-out”, practices cutting-edge law and has seen a half-billion dollar takeover first hand.

And Disneyland is apparently not half-bad either.

Vijaya Sampath, group general counsel (GC) and adviser of almost nine years to India’s largest telecoms company Bharti Enterprises and former J Sagar Associates (JSA) partner, has joined Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan (LKS) as an equity partner yesterday to head its corporate practice in Delhi.

Exclusive: “I don’t wish it on my worst enemy, and it’s not just a question of wanting to keep the record for myself,” jokes Andre Jerome about whether he’s ever likely to see a comparable case.

It is surprising that Jerome still has a sense of humour about it - as general counsel (GC) of Vodafone India Services Private Limited, he was literally at the beginning, middle and end of the storm surrounding its four-year court battle with the tax man.

Amarchand Mangaldas Hyderabad head and partner Kartik Mahalingam has resigned to join the “philanthropic investment firm” Omidyar Network as its first India-based legal head in Mumbai.

London-headquartered Essar Energy Plc has hired Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer senior associate Sheena Singla as its first general counsel (GC) to oversee future M&A and regulation at the FTSE 100 company company.

ICICI Bank's in-house department, which hired 24 campus graduates this year, has increased the salary package of new joiners to Rs 9.05 lakhs per year. This figure includes all benefits that employees receive but lawyers can choose to be paid the amount in full on a retainer basis after six months with the company.

The top 100 Indian companies are set to spend an estimated $479m (Rs 2,200 crores) in legal fees of which half will be billed by foreign firms, predicts an analyst report on the Indian legal market.

ICICI Bank has recruited six law students from three campuses to start in its in-house team next year and it is set to hire from at least another five law schools soon.

Amarchand Mangaldas has hired the former general counsel of private equity firm Sun Apollo as a partner for its Mumbai private equity and M&A practice.

One of Juris Corp's senior associates has rejoined the firm after a three year stint in-house at ICICI Bank and in the last three months the firm has also taken on six lawyers from law school and two junior lawyers returning after completing LLMs abroad.