partner hires

Link Legal India Law Services (LL-ILS), which merged with DH Law Associates in December to form a 155-lawyer firm with a partnership of 35, has added Rajdeep Choudhury as an associate partner in its project claims practice.

ANM Global, which had been set up in 2009 by Nidish Mehrotra and Anuj Gupta, has hired Citi vice president Binay Kumar Mishra as a senior partner to head the firm’s banking and finance practice from Mumbai.

Former Milbank Tweet Hadley & McCloy counsel Sanjeet Malik has joined Samvad Partners in Delhi, reported Bar & Bench.

IndusLaw has hired Sandeep Grover as a partner in litigation from Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, where he was a principal associate in Delhi.

Mumbai-headquartered SNG & Partners has started a stressed asset resolution practice by hiring Kishore Srinivasan, who had been working at Edelweiss Alternative Assets Advisors as executive vice president until January 2015 from 2010, reported VCCircle (paywalled).

HSA Advocates has hired Shahen N Pradhan as associate partner in Mumbai from J Sagar Associates (JSA), where he was a principal associate specialising in dispute resolution.

Jeet Sen Gupta, who had joined Juris Corp as a partner in July 2015 from Economic Laws Practice (ELP), has now joined the Mumbai start-up Vertices Partners, which was set up by three ELP alums.

Luthra & Luthra partner Santanu Mukherjee, who is head of international trade and policy advisory at the firm and had joined less than a year ago, has announced he’d leave Luthra to apparently go independent.

Delhi boutique indirect tax firm Nitya Tax Associates, which was started in June 2015 by ex-BMR Associates indirect tax head Puneet Bansal, has hired Shiva Nagesh from the DLF Group as its second partner.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas’ Mumbai partner Ashish Jejurkar, who was hired in 2009 from Luthra & Luthra, will be leaving the firm and moving to Japan, as first reported by Bar & Bench.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Hyderabad partner Anshuman Jaiswal is going in-house to join Indian renewables giant Greenko Group in a senior position.

Juris Prime, which had demerged from Kochhar & Co in Hyderabad last year after four years, merged with the litigation practice of Raja Shekar that operated as Salvaji Legal.

Former Luthra & Luthra partner Rajesh Chavda, who as we had reported on 2 November had left the firm, has now joined IDFC Alternatives as director legal and compliance.

Indigo has hired a new general counsel (GC) with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Singapore-based of counsel Priya Mehra, reported Bar & Bench.

Essar Power general counsel (GC) Sumant Nayak will be joining Desai & Diwanji as a partner in Mumbai.

DH Law added intellectual property (IP) lawyer Hasit Seth to set up an IP and Technology vertical for the firm, as a partner in Mumbai.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi partners and husband and wife team Harry Chawla and Niti Paul, who were first reported to be leaving in September, are “in the process of setting up our new firm” under the name Atlas Law Partners, Chawla told Bar & Bench.

Kochhar & Co Delhi partner Ricky Chopra has gone independent again, setting up Ricky Chopra - International Counsels in Gurgaon with immediate plans to expand with tie-ups in New York and Chandigarh, possibly followed by Mumbai.

Kochhar & Co added ALMT Legal partner Gautam Bhatikar as a senior partner and co-head of the Mumbai office of the firm. Bhatikar has joined the firm with ALMT senior associate Zoeb Cutlerywala.

The seven largest law firms in India have grown their headcounts by an average of around 20% in the last one-and-a-half years. Of those, the fastest-growing such as Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Khaitan & Co, had expanded fee-earner headcounts by 45% and 35% respectively, while others such as AZB & partners’ partnership ballooned by 75%.