partner hires

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.

Exclusive: Fox Mandal Delhi’s London founding partner Ajit Mishra has resigned from the firm, as the firm has left its old office and moved into a new one in the UK’s financial capital.

Exclusive: Advaya Legal, the two-and-a-half-year-old firm started by former GVK in-houser Ramesh Vaidyanathan, has hired its third partner with ex-BG in-house counsel Smriti Subramanian, as the firm hopes to spread its footprint beyond Mumbai.

Exclusive: ALMT Legal co-founding partner Ananjan Mitter will retire at the end of this month to pursue entrepreneurial ambitions unrelated to the legal field.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co Bangalore partner Anindita Phukan has set up a new office for Hyderabad-headquartered, four-year-old firm Tempus Law Associates, which opened a Pune office earlier this year.

Exclusive: Zia Mody and Goodwin Procter alumnus Anuradha Lall has joined PSA yesterday after seven years of independent practice, becoming its first partner other than founding partner Priti Suri.

Former Indigo Airlines senior legal counsel Piyush Gupta joined Kochhar & Co Gurgaon as competition and aviation partner on 6 August. Gupta will set up the firm’s aviation law practice.

Former Trilegal senior associate Nitin Banerjee joined J Sagar Associates (JSA) Delhi’s energy practice as retained partner on 3 August, after five years spent with international oil and natural gas (ONG) major BG Group in India and the UK.

Former DSK Legal partner Jagvir Singh will join HSA Advocates as the third partner in the firm’s project finance practice on 16 August, while also focusing on banking and corporate work.