partner hires

Wakhariya & Wakhariya has hired former UBS India legal head Neeta Sanghavi as partner to head the financial institutions, investment banking and private equity practices.

Exclusive: Vishnu Jerome, who resigned from AZB & Partners in June, has started up the law firm Alliance Legal with fellow NLSIU Bangalore graduates Priyanka Roy and Ravi Kumar from J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Talwar Thakore Associates (TTA) respectively.

Exclusive: Phoenix Legal has opened a second Mumbai office in Nariman Point relocating its recently hired litigation partner and bulked up with Hariani & Co real estate and corporate partner Siddharth Hariani to expand to three partners in Mumbai.

After taking on more space in Delhi, Khaitan & Co has hired Bangalore independent Anindita Phukan as a partner and vowed to grow both offices with Mumbai as a model, accepting that they needed to improve local market recognition.

Finsec Law Advisors has taken on its first lateral partner, with ARA Law senior associate Indrajit Mishra coming on board to build the transactional private equity practice at the financial sector advisory boutique.

As billions of dollars of Keralite treasure may ultimately end up exactly where they have always been, India’s lawyers generally do not.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co Delhi-based associate partner Rahul Ray and senior associate Shahana Farah have left to join Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan (LKS) as partners along with their team of five lawyers with effect from 1 July 2011.

Clyde & Co senior associate Sidanth Rajagopal has left to become a Delhi-based aviation partner at Clasis Law, the UK firm’s new Indian best friend law firm that split from ALMT Legal in April of this year.

Exclusive: HSA Advocates Mumbai partner and office head Utsa Shome, who had joined the firm in 2009 from AZB & Partners, will head up Kolkata firm Argus Partners’ new Mumbai office.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Vishnu Jerome is intending to set up a new law firm after his AZB resignation takes effect from the end of this month.

Juris Corp has absorbed AM Law, the practice of Bombay solicitor Mustafa Motiwala and six lawyers, bulking up the firm’s management capacity and advisory strength.

Exclusive: Naik Paranjpe & Co name partner Ashok Paranjpe and his team have joined former JSA partner Nishit Dhruva’s start-up MDP & Partners, hiking the partnership there to six as the firm will quadruple its floorspace with a new Ballard Estate office.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co has hired a Delhi start-up founder and ex-J Sagar Associate (JSA) partner Abhilekh Verma into its partnership in Bangalore.

Exclusive: Hemant Sahai Associates has rebranded itself to HSA Advocates and hired two later partners, including one Herbert Smith senior associate and senior Delhi litigator Meenakshi Arora, taking the firm up to 10 partners.

Partners were concluding the counting of money this week only interrupted on Wednesday by the India-Pakistan game (wisely a half-day at many firms). But with the new year, slates clear, bonuses paid and promotions gained (and missed), the recent lull in lateral movements and legal entrepreneurship is likely to pick up again.

Exclusive: DSK Legal is parting ways with Delhi partners Gopika Pant and Piyoosh Gupta over strategic differences on future growth, with one more lateral partner set to join the firm in its new larger Delhi office space only several weeks after hiring a team 15 lawyers.

Exclusive: M Dhruva & Partners (MDP) has hired former J Sagar Associates (JSA) senior associate Dipali Sarvaiya Sheth as a corporate partner to edge towards full-service law firm status.

Paras Kuhad & Associates (PKA) Delhi disputes partner Ravi Prakash has joined DSK Legal with a team of 14 lawyers, almost doubling the size of DSK’s Delhi outpost.

Less than three-year-old firm RDA Legal has re-branded to PXV Law Partners and started an office in Mumbai by relocating its newly elected managing partner Rohit Das, while hiring three lateral senior associates from Amarchand, AZB and P&A as lockstep partners.