Luthra & Luthra advised a consortium of 10 banks and financial institutions led by Axis Bank in the project financing of a $585m power project in the Chandrapur District of Maharashtra, constructed by GMR Energy subsidiary EEL.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) has made up one equity partner in Delhi and five new retained partners in its Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad offices, following last July’s promotion round of nine retained partners and two equity partners.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Talwar Thakore & Associates and its best friend Linklaters are advising India’s second largest power sector company Essar Energy in its plans to raise $2.5bn (Rs 11,000 crores) in a maiden listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Start-up firm V Law Partners has taken on two new self-starter equity partners and tripled its office size, only a little over half a year after ALMT Legal partner Vivek Daswaney had set out on his own.

Legal process outsourcing (LPO) company Pangea3 has acquired 12,000 square feet of floorspace with a 165-seat capacity on a mezzanine above its existing office in Andheri earlier this month.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Trilegal have completed mobile phone operator Aircel’s Rs 2,000 crore ($449m) commercial paper fundraising to part-finance the telecom operator’s upcoming 3G licence auction.

Amarchand Mangaldas picked up almost one third of 33 initial public offering (IPO) mandates in the first quarter of 2010, while Crawford Bayley, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra and Khaitan & Co together bagged another 40 per cent of instructions.

Kaden Boriss Legal LLP has bid for the due diligence and documentation work in the privatisation of Kuwait Airways Company along with consortium members Al Oula Law and Cox Padmore Skolnik & Shakarchy on 10 April in Kuwait.

AZB & Partners has shot to the top of the mergermarket M&A league table by acting on seven out of eight of the largest M&A deals in the first three months of 2010. Desai & Diwanji and Amarchand Mangaldas respectively came in at second and third place by number of deals done.

Mysore-based legal process outsourcing (LPO) company SDD Global has successfully helped defend an $800,000 California Court of Appeal libel claim against Sacha Baron Cohen, the creator of comedy characters Ali G and Borat.

The first hearing in the Chennai writ petition against foreign firms will be held today, after having been postponed from yesterday as the bench failed to convene for a post-lunch session.

Amarchand Mangaldas has hired a lateral partner and banking and derivatives specialist from the UK and has promoted three of its partner designates to full partnership.

Kochhar & Co has promoted litigation partner Syed Naqvi to its equity partnership that now consists of five advocates.

Khaitan & Co scooped another Blackstone mandate in the private equity house’s Rs 225 crore ($51m) investment in newspaper publisher Jagran Media, which was advised by Luthra & Luthra. Simpson Thacher was the international legal counsel to Blackstone.

Start-up firm RDA Legal has signed a best friends agreement with French-international law firm DS Avocats and has expanded with one lateral Delhi partner and one internal Kolkata promotion.

Khaitan & Co has promoted Mumbai associates Joy Jacob, Ashwin Mathew and Savita Singh to its partnership and announced associate bonuses of as much as 90 per cent of annual salaries at the top end.

Luthra & Luthra has elevated Pranjal Bora, Vikrant Kumar and Moushami Joshi to its partnership and made up two managing associates and 19 senior associates in a slew of internal promotions last weekend.

Khaitan & Co Mumbai has hired J Sagar Associates (JSA) retained partner and infrastructure projects specialist Amitabh Sharma into its partnership, which is the third lateral partner hire the firm completed yesterday (1 April).

Khaitan & Co has bolted on Delhi technology media and telecommunications (TMT) practice start-up Legal Spectrums and its founder Asim Abbas as a partner and has hired two lawyers from telecoms major BT’s offshore legal centre in Gurgaon.

Project finance specialist India Law Services (ILS) has advised a consortium of bankers in two project financing transactions of Nagapattinam Energy and Caddie Hotels in the last week of March.