Allen & Overy (A&O) has promoted India-England-New-York qualifie counsel Amit Singh to partnership in the Hong Kong capital markets practice.

Singh, who was part of a batch of 16 partners promoted globally on 26 February effective 1 May 2014, completed his undergraduate in law from Oxford University in 1998 as a Radhakrishnan British Chevening Scholar, after a BA in English literature from St Stephen’s College in Delhi in 1996.

After a short stint with Freshfields in London, in 2005 Singh qualified in New York after an LLM in corporate law from New York University (NYU) and worked at Davis Polk & Wardwell in the city and London before joining A&O in Hong Kong.

Singh explained that he qualified as an Indian lawyer in 1998 via a one-year apprenticeship when no test was required for Indian nationals who studied overseas to qualify in India. “I was in the batch of law students who had to do the apprenticeship for a year which was later scrapped by the Supreme Court (even before I completed my apprenticeship),” he explained.

Around 80 per cent of his practice is now India related at A&O, Singh told Legally India via email, explaining: “In fact, A&O has acted on pretty much most of the recent debt deals from India (including the 144A deals for SBI, Bharti , Bank of Baroda), the Suzlon credit enhanced bonds, Reg S deals for ONGC Videsh, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil Corporation Limited etc.

“We have also recently advised on 2 of the most significant equity deals from India recently – the Axis and SBI QIP deals where A&O were sole international counsel.”