Amarchand Mangaldas was the busiest IPO law firm in Legally India’s 2009-10 financial year (FY) league table by far but the newer practices Luthra & Luthra, S&R Associates, AZB & Partners and Khaitan & Co have managed to keep pace in bank advisory work bagging nearly as many instructions.

The general counsel (GC) of Mumbai International Airport and counsel of infrastructure company GVK Group has started up his own law firm by the name Advaya Legal, hoping to capture corporate, projects and litigation work.

Bhasin & Co managing partner Lalit Bhasin has represented the National Aviation Company of India (NACIL) in the Delhi High Court, which has ordered an injunction of the Air India employees’ strike solving the two-day deadlock.

Khaitan & Co has advised India’s largest utility vehicle maker in acquiring Bangalore electric car manufacturer REVA Electric Car Company, which was advised by Trilegal.

Crawford Bayley sold 350,000 square foot of client Bombay Dyeing and Manufacturing Company (BDMC)‘s real estate complex in Parel to Khaitan & Co client Axis Bank for around $170m.

Khaitan & Co has acted opposite PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) in the sale of Blue Star’s 24 per cent-owned ventilation subsidiary to Swedish company Systemair AB.

Sandeep Parekh, current IIM Ahmedabad visiting associate faculty and former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) executive director in enforcement and legal affairs, is setting up a Mumbai financial law boutique Finsec Law Advisors with a three-stage growth plan.

Mulla & Mulla & Craigie Blunt & Caroe and a UK firm are representing Air India’s insurance underwriters in compensating victims of the Air India air disaster, potentially handling claims running to Rs 400 crore ($85m).

Crawford Bayley, Luthra & Luthra and Baker & McKenzie and Stephenson Harwood have advised on the $3.7bn takeover of Piramal Healthcare by US pharma major Abbott Laboratories.

Luthra & Luthra and DLA Piper have won two out of two government disinvestment tenders this week for consultancy Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and the world’s largest coal producer Coal India Ltd, defeating firms such as Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners-Clifford Chance, Crawford Bayley and S&R Associates in a competitive tender.

Young private equity boutique Sand Hill Counsel has closed two private equity (PE) deals in the education sector for US-based venture capital firm Foundation Capital opposite AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Wadia Ghandy.

Amarchand Mangaldas is advising ICICI Bank on its takeover of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR), whose promoter Pravin Kumar Tayal is represented by Paras Kuhad Associates, in a stock deal that envisages a share exchange ratio of 25 ICICI shares for 118 BoR shares.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Crawford Bayley and Luthra & Luthra, and young firms Axon Partners LLP, Link Legal and S&R Associates, are bidding for the role of legal advisor to the government in the disinvestment of state-owned Engineers India Limited (EIL) which is set to happen through a follow-on public offer in July.

Luthra & Luthra has hired its first full-time M&A corporate partner in Mumbai, taking former Clifford Chance senior associate and Trilegal partner Sudipta Routh to diversify the office from its current finance focus.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Trilegal have advised Godrej Consumer on its buy-out of Sara Lee Corporation’s stake in the companies’ Indian joint venture (JV) for €185m ($234m).

Seven lawyers, including a Jharkhand sole proprietor, his ex-Khaitan & Co associate daughter, a young Rajastani legal practitioner, an intellectual property (IP) lawyer and a Supreme Court counsel, have banded together to co-found Juris Vista Law Chambers with offices in Delhi, Jaipur and Ranchi.

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) company Pangea3 has set up a marketing office in London to attack the European market, reported the UK’s Law Society Gazette.

Dewey & LeBoeuf and Linklaters have respectively advised India’s largest mining company Vedanta Resources in its agreement to acquire zinc assets from mining giant Anglo American for $1.34bn in order to make it the world’s largest zinc producer and to create a sizeable presence in Europe and Africa.

European-international firm CMS Cameron McKenna has become the first law firm to outsource its entire business support function after agreeing a £600m deal with Integreon, reported The Lawyer magazine today.

Naik Paranjpe and Company led by managing partner Ameet Naik has won a favourable order for clients Filmkraft and Adlabs against a suit filed in a munsif court that sought to restrain the release of the movie Kites.