partner hires

AZB & Partners has poached Luthra & Luthra M&A and corporate Delhi partner Aparna Mittal

Grant Thornton is seriously miffed at and has threatened to sue for breach of contract former Grant Thornton senior forensics team member Kunal Gupta, who was poached by Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas as reported in the previous week.

Legally India reliably understands that Kunal Gupta, Gurgaon-based partner of international accountancy and consulting firm Grant Thornton India, is set to join Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to head up its forensics team as a partner.

AZB & Partners senior associate Debashree Dutta will join Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas’ (SAM) Mumbai office as a partner, focusing on banking, Legally India has reliably learned.

Kochhar & Co has hired Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) partner Rahul Ray as a senior partner, while Ray’s team member Vikram Bajaj joined as a joint partner.

Jones Day Singapore capital markets partner and India head Manoj Bhargava and of counsel Ankit Kashyap will join top US firm Sidley in Singapore, only several months after Sidley’s capital markets partner in Singapore, Prabhat Mehta, moved to the firm’s New York office full time.

Advani & Co partner Kshitij Sancheti has joined Seth Dua & Associates as a corporate partner in its Mumbai office, following two new associate partners having joined the firm last year after four partners left.

Jones Day Singapore capital markets partner and India group head Manoj Bhargava and of counsel Ankit Kashyap have both resigned from the firm around a week ago.

IndusLaw has hired RDA Legal Bangalore partner Avik Biwsas as a partner in its Bangalore office with his team of associates Shrutika Umarji, N Guruprasad, Jaya Shruthi and Amrutha Bhat.

DSK Legal Mumbai partner and co-founding member of 14 years, Raksha Kothari, has resigned.

HSA Advocates partners Navin Syiem and Avirup Nag have resigned from the firm alongside associate partner Abhishek Bhalla.

Davis Polk and Wardwell capital markets counsel Ferish Patel joined Gunderson Dettmer as partner in November, to head its India and Southeast Asia practice.

Former Hammurabi & Solomon partner Vidya Adsule joined Pune real estate builder Kolte Patil Developers as its group general counsel.

Symbiosis Law School alumnus Aninda Pal joined Juris Corp as a partner in its mergers & acquisitions (M&A) and private equity (PE) practice from November 2015, according to a press release from the firm last week. Pal has worked in Trilegal as a counsel in its corporate legal team for more than eight years before this.

Legasis Partners associate partner Nishad Nadkarni has joined Khaitan & Co in Mumbai as a partner in its intellectual property (IP) practice.

Kanth & Associates added former HDFC Bank and Bank of Fujairah vice president Arvind Garg as a partner to build its banking and finance vertical.

Verus has added independent legal consultant Roochi Tripathy as a partner in Mumbai to focus solely on advising emerging businesses.

Delhi firm Seth Dua & Associates hired former Khaitan & Co senior associate Gaurav Dhwaj in telecoms, media and technology (TMT) and Vaish Associates senior associate Upvan Gupta in tax as associate partners.£££para£££

BMR Legal announced the induction of Kaushik Mukherjee, who was earlier a partner at J Sagar & Associates as the second partner based out of the firm’s Mumbai office.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) retained partner Chitra Narayan in Chennai will go independent to focus on mediation, reported Bar & Bench.

She told the website, “I have been a mediator with the Tamil Nadu Media & Conciliation Centre for about ten years and a year and a half ago I along with others co-founded Private Initiative for Mediation and I want to focus on that now”, while JSA’s outgoing managing partner Berjis Desai said that “she was keen to pursue a career in mediation principally. Sad to lose an excellent resource”.

Narayan had joined JSA when the firm absorbed local start-up Vichar last year to open in Chennai. Vichar’s other co-founders Vinod Kumar and Aarthi Sivanand remain at JSA