Mumbai
Luthra & Luthra Delhi partner Aniket Sengupta has relocated to its Mumbai office, as part of the firm's plans to further strengthen its presence in the financial capital.
Bharucha & Partners is moving its corporate department making and half the firm into Talwar Thakore Associates former Mumbai office, almost doubling its available floorspace in Mumbai.
Hariani & Co has moved into a new office almost twice the previous size in Mumbai offering, after one of its partners relocated from Bangalore.
Bangalore-headquartered firm Universal Legal has opened a Mumbai office with one partner and two associates in the Mahalaxmi area.
The Mumbai chapter of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) is starting on its drive to become an organisation relevant outside of Delhi, kicking off with a continuing legal education programme for associates.
Linklaters best friend Talwar Thakore & Associates has leased a new office in the Fort area with 70 per cent more floor space, bucking the recent trend of Mumbai firms moving North.
Legally India is a big fan of South Mumbai but the city's centre of legal gravity is gradually shifting North.
Both Khaitan & Co and Trilegal will take up residence in a new development in Lower Parel, joining Amarchand and several smaller firms in the area.
Last month Phoenix Legal also took a new address above the trendy nightspot Blue Frog in Lower Parel; the new office has a capacity of 30 but the firm is currently only six lawyers strong there.
The two co-founders of Paras Kuhad & Associates's Mumbai have quit as one is to start a new law firm and the remaining office continues working on last week's merger with Hemant Sahai Associates.
The Mumbai Mirror wrote about a gentleman this week who is "probably city's oldest law student" at 80 years of age. If so, he is lucky to have slipped through the age-barrier net that has been woven by the Bar Council of India (BCI).
Uddhav Alkari (not pictured) is an ex-employee of Madhya Pradesh State Secondary Education Board and the father of three children. According to tabloid Mumbai Mirror, he waited until his children were well settled to follow his dream of studying law.
He has had a tough time getting there, even without the BCI rules, as his 1967 exam scores were too low for law school admission and he had to get to law school in a round-about way.
In any case, hearty congratulations to Mr Alkari for his efforts and achievement.
However, despite most BCI members probably being of the same generation as Alkari, the body would probably not be pleased for him.
The Bar Council of India, Rules of Education, 2008 schedule III clause 28 stipulates that general category students seeking admission for BA (law) courses should not be above 20 while the age limit for the reserved category is 22 years.
The candidates for post-graduation course (LLB), in the general category should not be over 30 while for the reserved category the age limit is 35.
The Law Commission of India led by chairman A R Lakshmanan had also endorsed this rule.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court recently stayed all further proceedings in 12 High Courts on petitions challenging the Bar Council of India Rule fixing upper age limit for admission to LLB.
Delhi University Faculty of Law alumni Shilpi Gupta had studied with much older classmates and believes there is some value in the new BCI rule.
"A majority of students in our class belonged to the age group of 30 and above," she tells Legally India, "consisting of working professionals who were not interested in serious pursuit of law as a career, but rather hoped for advancement in their established fields."
"Therefore, BCI's mandate on imposing maximum age limit for admission to a law school is a welcome step. It will ensure that more seats are available for younger candidates for whom law is a preferred career option and not a tool for value addition."
Photo by Sukanto Debnath
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.
Bharucha & Partners has taken over a Mumbai niche corporate practice, gaining the first new equity partner since setting up.
After a near-hiatus for almost one year the IPO pipeline has finally filled up this July. No company wants to be left behind by the cheap cash-for-equity gravy train, the gold rush now appears to be self-sustaining – at least for the time being.
The distribution of spoils among Indian law firms is likely to be less even-handed.
Kochhar & Co has hired an Amarchand Mangaldas designated senior associate for its corporate team in Mumbai, vowing "aggressive" expansion in the city.
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.
Desai & Diwanji has poached a team of four lawyers from Crawford Bayley, taking on one senior associate as a partner.
Thakker & Thakker has made up its first female partner, growing its partnership to a total of five.
Wadia Ghandy & Co will open up a new office in Chennai within a month, marking the firm's recovery since the Mumbai terror attacks last November when one of its partners was killed.
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."
Khaitan & Co has made up a former PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) chartered accountant-cum-lawyer to partner.
Sanjay Sanghvi (pictured) only qualified as a lawyer after joining Khaitan in January 2008 from PwC. He is the third new member to the law firm's partnership in as many months.
He said that working in a law firm was very satisfying: "In accountancy firms you typically do compliance work and you don't go deeper into the law and interpretation.
Trilegal spin-off Phoenix Legal has added two associates in Delhi, vowing to significantly expand its practice there and in Mumbai with lateral hires.
The firm is hoping to hire a lateral partner for its Mumbai office and to double it in size to 10 lawyers by the end of the year.