Economic Laws Practice (ELP) elevated two Mumbai partners – Sanjay Notani in the firm’s international trade and customs practice and Darshan Upadhyay in the firm’s corporate commercial wing – into equity. The firm also made up eight new associate partners, five senior associates and nine associate managers.

Indus Law advised textile and apparel retailer Arvind Brands, which bought 49 per cent of the Indian licensee of global fashion giant Calvin Klein (CK) for Rs 100 crore. J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised the previous licensee Premium Garments and Wholesale Trading.

Luthra & Luthra is defending Finnish cellular giant Nokia’s Indian subsidiary Nokia India in its Madras high court writ contesting the Tamil Nadu VAT department’s claim and in the Supreme Court against a Rs 2,250 crore sales tax guarantee.

Gulati joined the firm in 2009 from Linklaters and specialises in capital markets and finance. TT&A partner Sonali Mahapatra said in a statement: “This promotion highlights our continued focus on the finance and regulatory practices and our intention to continue to enhance the breadth and depth...

Khaitan & Co hired two salaried partners and one counsel, with nine years of experience, in its capital markets and the energy and infrastructure practices across Delhi and Mumbai.

Luthra & Luthra and Perkins Coie acted for the Government of India in the first-of-its-kind central public sector enterprise (CPSE) exchange traded fund (ETF), which offered stakes in 10 public sector undertakings (PSUs) through a mutual fund structure.

AZB & Partners has promoted Bhavi Sanghvi to partner in Mumbai.

Trilegal has hired Deloitte counsel Himanshu S Sinha as a partner in its direct tax practice in Delhi and promoted infrastructure counsel Neeraj Menon to its partnership.

Khaitan & Co has promoted two Mumbai salaried partners - Adheesh Nargolkar and Raj Panchmatia - to equity partnership, and 11 principal associates to salaried partner.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) has today promoted nine of its lawyers to its salaried partnership across Delhi, Gurgaon and Mumbai.

AZB & Partners acted for Tata’s subsidiaries Trent and Trent Hypermarket that entered into a joint venture with Anglo-global supermarket retail behemoth Tesco, which drafted in Trilegal.

Former AZB & Partners senior associate, Souvik Ganguly, who founded start-up law firm Acuity Law, as reported by Legally India in February 2012, has joined BMR Legal as a partner.

Leapfrog Investment bought a Rs 174 crore ($29m) stake in IFMR Capital Finance, advised by Desai & Diwanji and Trilegal.

HSA Advocates has promoted Pranav Singh and Harsh Arora to its partnership, while Sumedha Dutta and Arun Mani were elevated to asociate partner level [Bar & Bench]

Khaitan & Co partner Vaishali Sharma, who joined in 2010 from AZB & Partners, has quit the firm.

Trilegal Delhi senior associate Mohit Jolly left the firm on 15 March to set up RDJ & Associates in Delhi, focussing on disputes, corporate-commercial, secretarial and intellectual property (IPR) work.

Twenty months after the Supreme Court (SC) had given 10 weeks to complete serving notices on foreign law firms, the Bar Council of India (BCI) appeal against foreign law firms practicing in India, remains stuck at the service stage.

Chinese law firms Jun He and Zhong Lun are in talks to merge, which, if successful, would create a Chinese law firm with combined revenues of £180m (Rs 1,800 crore), with 400 partners and 1,000 lawyers in eight cities and offices in Japan, the US and London. [The Lawyer]

There was a fire yesterday in Amarchand Mangaldas’ Hyderabad office of around 20 people. No one was injured in the fire and no documents were lost, said Amarchand Mumbai senior partner Vandana Shroff. The fire did not start in Amarchand’s office and the cause was still being investigated, she said. ...

J Sagar Associates (JSA) has merged with Chennai law firm Vichar Partners, which was set up by alumni from Universal Legal, Dua Associates and Paras Kuhad Associates in 2010.