partner hires

Economic Laws Practice (ELP) has hired Bharti Airtel general counsel Jyoti Pawar to head its telecommunications, media and technology practice (TMT) in Delhi.

Former Luthra & Luthra Delhi corporate partner Anil Kumar Rai will be joining NLU Delhi as a visiting professor.

Luthra and Luthra Delhi general corporate partner Prof Anil Kumar Rai left the firm on Friday, after the headcount of the team he was heading at the firm gradually shrunk over the last few months.

Advani & Co litigation partner Shashank Garg has left the firm to join Delhi litigation firm Suri & Co as partner.

Madras HC 12-judge-names appeal: The Madras HC through its registrar general will move the SC against its own division bench decision that had stayed the appointment of the 12 recommended Madras HC advocates as judges whose recommendations has courted controversy at the HC [TOI]

Madras HC advocates against opacity, subjectivity in judge selection: Madras High Court Advocates Association President RC Paul Kanagaraj says that in the absence of transparency in the collegium process the judges panel recommending names for judgeships is easily prone to favouritism. Kanagaraj is opposed by a faction of lawyers of the HC who feel that consulting bar associations is a process prone to subjectivity and not entirely fair [New Indian Express]

Delhi needs 100 more judges: Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti has advised the Delhi HC to recruit 100 judges for various courts in the capital [Business Standard]. Last year Legally India reported how the Delhi district judges recruitment machinery falls remarkably short of the need faced in the capital.

Delhi gets 47 new courts: Delhi HC chief justice NV Ramana today ordered setting up of 47 new courts in the capital. The new courts, which will come up in six district court complexes from January 15, will deal with heinous crimes, civil cases, and motor accident claims [PTI]

MMB Legal first partner: Wipro senior corporate counsel Sonal Basu joined former MMB Legal partner Talha Salaria’s Bangalore-based start-up L.A.W as a partner. Basu, who has had stints at JSA Bangalore and at Nokia, will focus on L.A.W’s Information Technology/ITeS and telecom practices [Bar & Bench]

3 new Kerala HC judges: Kerala high court additional judges, justices Babu Mathew P Joseph, Ambazhavelil Velayudhan Pillai Ramakrishna Pillai and Pannipuzhayil Divakaran Rajan have become permanent judges in that HC [Net Indian]

Karnataka Lokayukta on anti-corruption cell: Karnataka’s Lokayukta Justice Y Bhaskar Rao has written to Karnataka HC Chief Justice D H Waghela seeking intervention in helping the general public file complaints before the state’s anti-corruption cell with support from the Karnataka Legal Services Authority and legal volunteers under it in rural areas [TOI]

Slow special child abuse case disposal law: “More than a year after Parliament passed a special law to ensure the speedy disposal of cases of child abuse, just 38 of over a thousand cases filed in Maharashtra have been disposed of with only nine convictions,” reports [DNA India]

Useful ordinance? 1/615: Out of 615 ordinances promulgated in India between 1958 and 2006, the only one justifiable ordinance is the one introduced by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai in 1978—where currency notes in denominations ofRs.1,000/5,000/10,000 were demonetized—because they thought it was one way of dealing with corruption and inflation, according to a study conducted by  NUJS Kolkata graduate and Singapore Managment University assistant professor Shubhankar Dam [Mint]

Yogesh Bhattarai, who left AZB & Partners’ equity partnership in 2012 for a sabbatical, has joined Trilegal.

Wadia Ghandy partner Anand Shah, with his team of four associates, will join AZB & Partners in the New Year as a senior associate on partnership track.

Former BMR Legal co-founding partner Sujit Ghosh has set up tax litigation firm Advaita Legal with ex-KPMG partner Sunil Moti Lala. Ghosh is based in Delhi, Lala is based in Mumbai and the firm has 30 lawyers across its offices in the two cities, reported legal website Bar & Bench.

According to Lala’s Linked-in profile, Advaita was started in September 2013.

Ghosh, who heads the start up’s indirect tax litigation practice, co-founded BMR Legal in 2004. He graduated from NLSIU Bangalore in 1995 and joined Arthur Andersen until 2002 and Ernst & Young until 2004. Lala heads corporate tax litigation at Advaita Legal and was at KPMG since 2010 and at PricewaterhouseCoopers since 2007.

The founding partners declined to comment when contacted by Bar & Bench, but apparently “it is understood that the firm works closely with KPMG”. BMR Legal is the legal services arm of BMR Consulting, while Big Four consultancy Ernst & Young has an alliance with law firm PDS Legal.

MV Kini partner Shrikant Kamath, who joined in 2012 to start its tax practice, left last week but is replaced by principal associate Prateush Sharma.

Clasis Law has added an energy and infrastructure practice with former Dhir & Dhir Associates energy and infrastructure partner Jay Cheema, who joined the firm as partner in Delhi effective today.

Trilegal competition head Rahul Singh has left to Oxford University for a PhD but will continue to work part time as of counsel.

Khaitan & Co Mumbai partner Murali Neelakantan has joined Indian pharmaceutical giant Cipla as its global general counsel (GC).

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai office scoops Luthra lawyer who’s been associated with the firm for 13 years.

Clasis Law has recruited Grant Thornton indirect tax director Manoj Mishra as head of indirect tax in Delhi – the first hire in the practice area. Before 2007 he was working at Khaitan & Co, reported Bar & Bench.

Legasis Partners partner Sachin Mandlik has joined Khaitan & Co as a partner in dispute resolution in Mumbai.

Khaitan & Co former indirect tax executive director Manish Mishra joined Link Legal - India Law Services as a partner on Monday.

Juris Corp partner and Chennai head Hufriz Wadia has resigned, having joined in January to open the office in the city.