General Counsel (GC) from 87 Indian companies would mostly like foreign law firms (FLFs) to come into India, but fewer than half of them would prefer giving their business to the FLFs, even though a majority of them find that the FLFs are generally more competent than Indian law firms.

Bharti Airtel’s director legal Sameer Chugh leads, in his words, a “fast-paced” industry.

/images/uploads/20170508-113211_200.jpgFormer Kolkata-based Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) and Amarchand Mangaldas partner Niloy Pyne, who joined to US based consulting firm Barret & Averro in 2015, has joined the VFS Global Group as its group general counsel (GC).

Murali Neelakantan, who had left Indian pharma giant Cipla as global general counsel in 2015, has re-entered the in-house and pharmaceuticals space with Glenmark Pharmaceuticals after two years focusing on several legal education-related interests.

Under Taj Hotels current general counsel Rajendra Misra, the iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai is set to join the rare registered trademark category of what are known as “image marks”. The Louvre in Paris is another one.

Internally sometimes called the youngest legal head of India’s largest and oldest biscuit maker, Britannia Industries head of legal Burhan Khalid has litigation on his platter, and a lot of it.

A couple of months ago, I completed one year as the general counsel (GC) for Inshorts, the widely popular news app which summarizes a range of news stories in just sixty words for easy consumption and understanding by the users.

Wadia Ghandy Mumbai-based senior associate Vidya Venugopal has moved to Delhi to join the World Bank as South Asia legal counsel, as part of a team of four.

Mukund RS , the associate general counsel of Harman International Industries subsidiary Symphony Teleca, which operates in the telecoms software space, has joined IBS Software Services as its VP & head of legal and company affairs in Bangalore, as first reported by VCCircle and reflected in his Linkedin profile.

General counsel (GCs) from at least 15 big Indian companies welcomed liberalisation in Indian legal services, and said that the Bar Council of India (BCI) was currently the “biggest bottleneck” to law firm liberalisation.

Dev Bajpai, executive director legal & corporate affairs at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), and vice president legal for South Asia at Unilever, has been appointed as executive director at HUL’s board of eight members.

PayU Payments India vice president legal, regulatory and compliance, Sheetal Sawhney Kapur, has joined Google India’s legal team.

Infosys’ San Francisco-based general counsel (GC) David Kennedy has quit after a mutual agreement between him and the global Bangalore-headquartered IT giant, according to several reports of its stock exchange announcement:

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Hyderabad partner Anshuman Jaiswal is going in-house to join Indian renewables giant Greenko Group in a senior position.

Former Luthra & Luthra partner Rajesh Chavda, who as we had reported on 2 November had left the firm, has now joined IDFC Alternatives as director legal and compliance.

Indigo has hired a new general counsel (GC) with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Singapore-based of counsel Priya Mehra, reported Bar & Bench.

UAE Exchange Financial Services associate director legal Mandakini Sharma has moved from Abu Dhabi to Mumbai to join a subsidiary of Swiss pharma major, Roche Diabetes Care India, as its head of compliance, as first reported by VCCircle.

Dhananjay Shahi, former senior vice president legal at Religare Enterprises, has joined Baring Private Equity Asia’s newly set up lending arm as head of legal and executive vice president.

JPMorgan India has hired Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas consultant Shubhra Tewari as assistant general counsel and vice president legal, taking its total legal team to eight lawyers and three company secretaries.

SunEdison India general counsel (GC) and director legal of six years, Vinay Bhatia, has joined the IL&FS Financial Services as its new general counsel based in Chennai.