Welcome back to Legally India’s newsletter and apologies for the long delay. The good news is, however, that this issue is packed with more exciting news and analysis than ever before.
Vodafoning
The Vodafone tax case is likely to remain one of the biggest corporate cases of the year. Legally India looked behind the scenes of the judgment and interviewed Vodafone’s GC about what have probably been the most stressful years of his life.
For the must-read insider account of a mammoth Indian litigation, read: The lawyer who lost then won $2bn: Vodafone GC Andre Jerome’s insider account of taxes, the value of Salve & dark days
Legally India’s collaboration with Mint then delved deeper and told the story of the other legal brains who won (and lost) Vodafone: Salve, R Nariman, Dutt Menon Dunmorrsett & many more
And for those who missed it, here’s the analysis: Tax lawyers mull law, jurisprudence & world post-Vodafone
What is #Nalsargate?
If Vodafone was the biggest corporate case of the year, l’affaire Nalsar Hyderabad could be one of legal education’s biggies. An apparently buried report by four judges and former judges, which Legally India obtained under RTI, revealed serious cracks in the administration of one of India’s most prestigious law schools. Students and faculty are mostly innocent, the cracks are not likely to be fatal and the diligence of the judicial report should be applauded. Perhaps it should also herald a new standard of law school transparency across India.
To find out more about it and what it means, read: The inside story of Nalsar’s secret report and the quest for excellence.
Top law firms stories
Going by the start of this year, the law firm world will go through major changes.
Late last year Legally India told the detailed story of how FoxMandal and Little & Co – one of the most hyped mergers in recent years – unravelled and fell apart like a stack of cards.
Also, an unusual occurrence for a law firm litigator: Amarchand senior equity litigator Ciccu Mukhopadhaya leaves with gown & blessings to counsel practice.
In more disheartening news, a young start-up firm that inspired many is breaking up: PXV partnership splits over ‘vision’, with Rohit Das restarting RDA Legal. But at least the separating partners seem to be acting sensibly, taking their time in order to minimise clients any pain.
More law firm headlines:
- ALMT promos 4 to partner in Mumbai, Bangalore sans Clyde
- Shipping law start-up lawyer Harsh Pratap joins Clasis
- New champ Khaitan & Co smashes DSK at Mumbai Masters Cricket Cup 2012
- Juris Corp corporate partner Vandana Sekhri leaves
- Amarchand restocks Cal & Hyd offices with 2 new partners, Jaiswal & Dutta
- Argus launches Calcutta lit practice with Amarchand SA Soorjya Ganguli
- Bombay solicitors fail rate spikes back to 96% but record numbers take tests anyway
At the courts
Legally India reported major drama, news and analysis from the courts too of course.
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) experienced a coup, then a counter-coup, reported near-live by Legally India with the help of the Twitterati. First, SCBA pres PH Parekh quits after heated ‘one bar one vote’ debate with RamJet. Then Parekh foils the revolt and maintains he is still president.
In other news, a High Court judge lost it at an airport and hurled unprintable obscenities, threats and a mobile phone at hapless IndiGo staff, who complained to the Patna chief justice.
- Mohit Abraham on the record: How to top the advocates-on-record (AOR) exam & other secrets
- Pendency Project: Failure continues as 2011 closes with new record of SC pending cases
- Women make up as few as 6% of district court advocates
Liberalisation & foreign firms
The entry of foreign law firms debate shows no sign of ending, although some are optimistic that at least the Chennai writ petition against 31 of them may finally come to rest: Madras HC may give verdict in writ v foreign firms in 4 weeks, as arguments close
Also read:
- ABA-India panel debate: Can foreign lawyers practice foreign law in India; can Indians lawyer in NY/Lon?
- Mint Blog: 5 biggest law firm best friend stories of 2011
Regulatory
EasyLaw website offers Rs 500 / hr legal advice online, says BCI advertising ban doesn’t apply
- BCI to hire PR agency, resolves that HRD min ‘stealthily trying to invite foreign firms’
- Gov’t must disclose its legal opinions, says CIC vs Vahanvati
- India must lead to make South Asia human rights commission: Justice Ganguly
- Opinion: Strip BCI of powers over legal education & ‘noble’ professional regulation
Legal education
- US job market remains in dumps; 92% of Indian LLM grads come home empty handed?
- 800+ GNLU students move into ‘monumental’ 50 acre, Rs 150 crore campus in Gandhinagar
- February calls for papers on human rights, IP & computers, Chinese property law, NLIU and HRLN volunteers
Bar exam
The All India Bar Exam just does not seem to be able to run smoothly: AIBE results due today but Cal HC bar exam injunction will delay till Feb/ March; BCI files SLP
And more:
- BarHacker’s post-mortem of 3rd bar exam & unofficial answer key
- BCI ramps up bar exam difficulty, grads fail to finish; AIBE protests in TN
- 22,000 on for Bar Exam on 8 Jan 2012 despite Cal HC stay
Mooting Premier League 3
- First moot organisers conference to decide on ‘near perfect’ moot formats & harmonisation on 24 March
- Young NLSIU team wins Rizvi; Bangalore leads NLU-J by 82 MPL points
- Mega Mooting Sunday: NLU Delhi wins Jessup North and KK Luthra; NUJS, NLS post wins at Christ Anti-trust and Rizvi moots
- NLSIU, SOEL Chennai qualify for Jessup Int’l rounds from South India; Nalsar defeated in semis
- NLU Delhi learns from prelims, stops NLSIU-B at Oxford Media India moot for 1st MPL3 win
- BCI scraps 1 of 3 Jubilee moots at NLU-J; Christ-LKS-CCI start India’s 2nd anti-trust moot
Careers Counsel
- Dear Aunty & Uncle: Star associate watches porn in office
- Mint Careers Counsel: Should I do an LLM abroad? Ponderings on India’s fascination with the LLM
- Aunty & Uncle: Am I ready to start a law firm?
Top deals & cases
Leading with a deal that has literally been years in the making and negotiation: Luthra, Amarchand brew Starbucks’ Rs 400 cr India entry with Tatas
The full-year mergermarket league table was dominated in 2011 by AZB again, with a little help from Reliance. Just behind AZB are TTA, S&R, Amarchand, Khaitan and JSA.
The rest of the past month-and-a-bit’s deals and cases.
- First time SC for Amarchand’s gowned Ciccu as 11 seniors argue in Bhatia test case
- Apex court rebooted the 2G spectrum, licenses to be re-auctioned
- DSK, Herbies sell Strides’ Rs 2000 cr SEA-Oz pharma biz to Watson
- 7 deals in brief: AZB, JSA on Rs 650 cr Netmagic sale to NTT & more rounded up
- AZB Delhi’s Kastia deepens Religare ties in Rs 200 cr Jacob Ballas PE deal with S&R
- Sector record: Desai & Diwanji operate Olympus Rs 500 cr PE healthcare buy in DM Health with Universal, DSK
- Breaking: Kingfisher Rs 1 cr CCI fine reduced to Rs 72.5 lakh as CCI dismisses Kingfisher-Jet, other airline cartel cases
- Maha Power Co tells CCI: Coal India abuses dominance with ‘lumpy, sticky, wet’ coal
- Alliance snags deal with old-timers Amarchand, ELP, Wadia G on Mayfield, General Atlantic PE exit/entry
- Blackstone’s reported circle of firms grows to 6 with JSA opposite Amarchand in $156m DLF Ackruti buy
- AZB, Khaitan get nod on elaborate Rs 1,500+ cr Reliance-Network18 deal [Update: +Amarchand for banks]
- In brief: 12 deals, 11 firms: CCI clearance by Trilegal, WG, Simmons; European M&As; projects, real estate, lit & more
- MV Kini rides on GSec fever in $1.9bn NHAI bond issue
- Axon first for Sindicatum in green power JV with JSA
- Amarchand, Desai & Diwanji sell Rs 430 cr DLF Gurgaon land to M3M
- 26 deals & cases of dozen firms in monster pre-Christmas package
Commentary
- #SOPA blackout day? Bah. Where’s the kolaveri about India’s IT Act Intermediaries Rules?
- 2011 legal opinion: The year of I am Anna and corporate law reforms
- The NLS experiment has not failed but what about the rest?
Legally Wired News Round-ups
Top photo by Felix O,
other photos under creative commons license have details available on linked-to pages.
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