partner hires

J Sagar Associates (JSA) to go big on media and sports – including the violent kind - with Nandini Mehta.

Clasis Law aviation partner Sidhanth Rajagopal, who joined the firm in Delhi from best friend relationship firm Clyde & Co London where he was a senior associate, has returned to Clydes as an equity partner after less than two years in India.

Clasis partner Vineet Aneja told legal website Bar & Bench that given the transnational nature of Rajagopal’s client base, it was logical for him to return to a global law firm.

Shalini Agarwal, one of the co-founders of Clasis when it broke away from ALMT Legal, which she had also founded, left Clasis at the end of March to set up her own independent practice headquartered in London. The departures leave Clasis with seven partners across Delhi, Mumbai and London.

Singh will relocate this month to ramp up Mumbai’s disputes practice.

JSA partner to power ultra-mega-power project as CEO.

NDR + AZB alum MG = new national firm Samvad Partners.

Kumar to join team of Cyril and Vandana Shroff in Mumbai on 5 April.

Exclusive: Former Seth Dua & Associates partner Rahul Goel has joined Dhir & Dhir Associates as a retained partner with Seth Dua senior associate Anu Monga. Goel will set up new practices at Dhir handling competition, anti-dumping and international trade, and advisory technology, media and telecommunications (TMT).

ALMT Legal senior associate Preeti Balwani has joined Khaitan Sud & Partners (KSP) as a salaried partner to head up its Mumbai office and drive its corporate practice under a best friendship with a business consultancy started up by an ex-PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) director.

Pamasis Law, the former Luthra & Luthra and Fox Mandal associates’ litigation firm started up in August of last year, has grown to three partners and two associates in a first formal office space.

Exclusive: Sudhir Bassi, Morgan Stanley managing director and head of corporate finance based in Mumbai, is set to join Khaitan & Co as a partner-level member of its capital markets practice.

Alliance Legal co-founder and AZB & Partners alumnus Vishnu Jerome has rebranded his practice to P&C Legal after merging his practice into Bangalore headquartered firm Poovayya & Co.

K Law has hired Anisha Patnaik, who was formerly a director at seed stage investment fund First Light Accelerator as a partner in Mumbai in its funds practice, according to legal website Bar & Bench.

She was previously legal counsel at Acumen Fund, before which she was the first female lawyer to have been promoted at Thakker & Thakker to salaried partnership, as reported by Legally India in 2009.

Thakker & Thakker closed in 2010, with its founder Bijesh Thakker wanting to focus on philanthropic projects.

Khaitan & Co had picked up a number of lawyers from firm after it closed.

Exclusive: Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) senior practice co-heads Siddharth Shah and Bijal Ajinkya will join Khaitan & Co in Mumbai as funds and tax partners respectively in around two weeks.

Alliance Legal co-founding partner and J Sagar Associates (JSA) alumni Priyanka Roy has joined IndusLaw as its second Mumbai equity partner to bolster former ICICI general counsel (GC) Pramod Rao who set up the office in April 2012.

Former Amarchand Mangaldas senior partner Harry Chawla has joined his former firm Kochhar & Co as its lead partner in Mumbai, though it is understood he will spend most of his time in Delhi.

Desai & Diwanji Delhi partner Amit Khansaheb, who had been with the firm for 18 years, has joined BMR Legal – the legal services arm of consultancy firm BMR Advisors – as a partner in order to ramp up the firm’s M&A and private equity legal practice.

Clifford Chance India group partner and Amarchand Mangaldas alumnus Sumesh Sawhney has resigned to join Jones Day in London.

Exclusive: Senior Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi equity partner Harry Chawla, who also co-heads the Delhi corporate practice and is one of four non-family partners on the firm’s national management committee, is understood to have resigned from the firm.

Dorsey & Whitney London special counsel Jamie Benson, who has played a key role in several of the firm’s Indian capital markets transactions, has moved to the Singapore office of US law firm Duane Morris & Selvam to co-head its India practice.

Benson, who specialises in US securities and capital markets law, said: “It will be much easier to run my India practice from Singapore compared with London. Also, if you are serious about servicing Indian clients I think you need to be in Singapore.”

The India group at the 700-lawyer firm with more than 20 offices, the majority of which are in the US, is co-headed by funds and private equity partner Parikhit Sarma and M&A partner Krishna Ramachandra.

Exclusive: Vineetha MG, who has been at AZB & Partners for 11 years and made partner there in 2006, will leave the firm at the end of this month to consider career options.