Khaitan & Co will take a lawyer from UK international firm Eversheds on a three-month secondment in September, reported The Lawyer.

FoxMandal Little has not been able to pay fee-earners in Delhi their salaries as the office faces a liquidity crisis.

Kochhar & Co has hired an Amarchand Mangaldas designated senior associate for its corporate team in Mumbai, vowing “aggressive” expansion in the city.

One of Juris Corp’s senior associates has rejoined the firm after a three year stint in-house at ICICI Bank and in the last three months the firm has also taken on six lawyers from law school and two junior lawyers returning after completing LLMs abroad.

Clifford Chance has cemented its ties to Air India, acting on the $1bn (Rs 4,900 crore) asset finance loan from JPMorgan Chase, which was advised by Milbank Tweed Hadley McCloy.

Kanga & Co Mumbai partner Dhaval Vussonji is leading the team for the original bidder Bharati Shipyard, which already owns a 19.5 per cent stake in Great Offshore.

Lawyers have threatened legal action over the Government’s new service tax as Delhi litigators are going on strike over the issue today.

Platinum Partners has grown its lawyer ranks by a quarter in the last three months, taking on three law school graduates and a lateral associate from White & Case in London.

Despite meagre pickings, Desai & Diwanji, Khaitan & Co, AZB & Partners and Amarchand Mangaldas have topped an M&A league table, together advising on 30 Indian deals worth a total of $9.4bn in the last six months.

This year’s Union Budget has paved the way for law firm partnerships to convert to limited liability partnerships (LLPs).

The 2009-10 Union Budget has extended service tax to lawyers, which could directly increase legal bills to clients and result in downward pressure on fees.

Platinum Partners has joined the team of legal advisers on the MTN – Bharti Airtel merger talks alongside four other firms on what could be India’s largest cross-border deal to date with a value of around $23bn (Rs 110,000 crore).

Amarchand Mangaldas is planning to convert to a limited liability partnership (LLP) once the structure is finalised and has been sanctioned by the Bar Council of India.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Lex Counsel and Platinum Partners have advised on a $17.5m (Rs 85 crore) joint venture (JV) deal between the UK’s Pearson Group and Delhi-based education company Educomp Solutions.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) has doubled its size in Bangalore by merging with M&C Partners, which was started up by two partners and their team from AZB & Partners one year ago.

KSB Partners’ legal process outsourcing (LPO) arm Lexplosion is set to more than double its capacity of lawyers within three months, as it aims to roll out a new compliance management product for Indian companies.

Desai & Diwanji has poached a team of four lawyers from Crawford Bayley, taking on one senior associate as a partner.

Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto has outsourced part of its legal work to 12 qualified Delhi lawyers, which has already saved the company $1m (Rs 5 crore) in little more than a month.

Phoenix Legal has denied that it has a best friends tie-up with UK international firm Lovells, after a press report linked the two today.

Thakker & Thakker has made up its first female partner, growing its partnership to a total of five.