Two offices of AZB & Partners acted on opposite sides of a Chinese Wall for private equity investor Matrix India and gold loan company Muthoot Finance in a 4 per cent investment totalling Rs 157 crore with Luthra & Luthra advising second investor Baring Private Equity Partners India.

NUJS Kolkata saw almost a third of its batch snapped up by law firms as Amarchand Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co, Luthra & Luthra and Trilegal together made 30 offers two weeks ago.

Luthra & Luthra’s capital markets practice has increased its leverage structure with the hire of its alumni Indraneel Basu Majumdar as a managing associate on “partnership track” from Clifford Chance.

Luthra & Luthra was the most active project finance legal advisers both by value and volume in the first half of 2010, followed by India Law Services, SJ Law Advocates & Solicitors, Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners and SN Gupta & Co, according to data compiled for Legally India by data provider Dealogic.

Amarchand Mangaldas acted on more than half of the total number of Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) in Legally India’s QIP League Table of the 2009-2010 fiscal year. AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co were the second-busiest followed by J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Crawford Bayley and S&R Associates amongst domestic firms.

International firm Jones Day bagged the maximum QIPs out of foreign law firms acting for the book running lead managers while Linklaters, Dorsey & Whitney and Clifford Chance also won mandates on a significant numbers of fundraisings.

AZB & Partners, Luthra & Luthra and Jones Day have advised power generation company Ind-Barath Power Infra on its initial public offering (IPO) of equity shares through which the company hopes to raise Rs 1153 crores.

IPL (Indian Premier League) broadcasters Sony Entertainment Television yesterday filed a Rs 147 crore recovery suit in the Bombay High Court through Luthra & Luthra against the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and its media rights licensee World Sports Group (WSG).

Less than one month ago a financial daily caused a stir in the cozy Delhi capital markets world after reporting that the selection of law firms in the disinvestment of Coal India Limited and Engineers India Limited (EIL) had been discriminatory, alleging political nepotism. But as so often there is more than meets the eye.

Amarchand Mangaldas was the busiest IPO law firm in Legally India’s 2009-10 financial year (FY) league table by far but the newer practices Luthra & Luthra, S&R Associates, AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co have managed to keep pace in bank advisory work bagging nearly as many instructions.

NLU Jodhpur has beaten the recession blues with its entire 2010 graduating batch of 2010 finding jobs or placements with Trilegal, Luthra & Luthra and Amarchand Mangaldas picking up 17 students in total and legal process outsourcing (LPO) companies including Clifford Chance’s captive LPO hiring eight, according to faculty.

Crawford Bayley, Luthra & Luthra and Baker & McKenzie and Stephenson Harwood have advised on the $3.7bn takeover of Piramal Healthcare by US pharma major Abbott Laboratories.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Crawford Bayley and Luthra & Luthra, and young firms Axon Partners LLP, Link Legal and S&R Associates, are bidding for the role of legal advisor to the government in the disinvestment of state-owned Engineers India Limited (EIL) which is set to happen through a follow-on public offer in July.

Luthra & Luthra has acted for the State Bank of India led consortium of 22 banks and financial institutions for a $2.08 billion syndicated rupee debt deal for a Tata Steel project at Jamshedpur.

Luthra & Luthra has acted for an IDBI-led consortium of banks and financial institutions in the financing of $50m coal mine project of GVK Coal (Tokisud) Company in Jharkhand.

Luthra & Luthra advised a consortium of 10 banks and financial institutions led by Axis Bank in the project financing of a $585m power project in the Chandrapur District of Maharashtra, constructed by GMR Energy subsidiary EEL.

Amarchand Mangaldas picked up almost one third of 33 initial public offering (IPO) mandates in the first quarter of 2010, while Crawford Bayley, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra and Khaitan & Co together bagged another 40 per cent of instructions.

Khaitan & Co scooped another Blackstone mandate in the private equity house’s Rs 225 crore ($51m) investment in newspaper publisher Jagran Media, which was advised by Luthra & Luthra. Simpson Thacher was the international legal counsel to Blackstone.

Luthra & Luthra has elevated Pranjal Bora, Vikrant Kumar and Moushami Joshi to its partnership and made up two managing associates and 19 senior associates in a slew of internal promotions last weekend.

Luthra & Luthra has leased another 9,000 square feet in its existing Delhi office to build an indoor cricket practice pitch for fee-earners, following the firm’s victory at the law firm T-20 tournament last Sunday.

Luthra & Luthra has won this year’s Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) – Khushal T-20 cricket tournament against Amarchand Mangaldas in an exciting finish to a close match that was held yesterday night in Delhi after the semi-finals of Saturday.