UK firm Penningtons has kick-started its India practice with the hire of former Platinum Partners associate Saionton Basu and UK South-East firm EMW-Picton Howell former merger partner Teja Picton-Howell.

Exclusive: Almost half of a sample of India’s fastest growing companies still relied on domestic law firms to introduce them to foreign law firms, according to a report.

Exclusive: The former Bharucha & Partners senior associate and 2006 NUJS Kolkata graduate is in the process of taking on board three more equity partners to create a national law firm.

Exclusive: The office head of Vaish Associates’ one-year-old Bangalore office K R Vasudevan has quit for a multinational company following internal politics and the office’s strategic shift from tax to corporate work, with a Mumbai associate now taking charge of the branch.

Exclusive: Allen & Overy (A&O) and its Indian best friend firm Trilegal have extended their preferred referral arrangement indefinitely after having first entered into it for a limited three-year term.

Luthra & Luthra has promoted 2010 Clifford Chance hire and managing associate Indraneel Basu Majumdar to partner in capital markets, swelling the department’s ranks to three non-equity partners and aiming to build up a debt capital markets practice.

In a letter to BCI chairman Gopal Subramanium, American Bar Association (ABA) president N Zack urged the Bar Council of India (BCI) to maintain “status quo” when discussing the entry of foreign law firms tomorrow (29 January).

Exclusive: Desai & Diwanji has relocated its corporate transactions group to a new 8,500 square foot office in Gurgaon’s DLF Phase III while keeping its earlier central Delhi premises for the litigation team while finalising another Delhi location.

Senior advocate and former additional solicitor general Abhishek Manu Singhvi yesterday argued for an early disposal of the Chennai writ petition against foreign law firms while the matter was once again adjourned after the Bar Council of India (BCI) counsel promised comprehensive guidelines regulating the activities of foreign law firms would be discussed at a meeting before the month-end.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners and Clifford Chance broke off their best friend relationship yesterday night to become “good friends” after both firms saw fewer referrals than expected and legal market liberalisation became more unlikely than when they first entered into the relationship two years ago.

Exclusive: Luthra & Luthra will move into new interim offices in Lower Parel this weekend, having finalised office space of 12,000 square foot in the Indiabulls complex enabling a tripling of current headcounts.

Less than three-year-old firm RDA Legal has re-branded to PXV Law Partners and started an office in Mumbai by relocating its newly elected managing partner Rohit Das, while hiring three lateral senior associates from Amarchand, AZB and P&A as lockstep partners.

Majmudar & Co has hired Bharucha & Partners equity partner Rukshad Davar as a corporate, M&A and tax partner in Mumbai.

Exclusive: Link Legal has absorbed top-ranked mid-market capital markets boutique Zenith India Lawyers, with erstwhile Zenith managing partner Raj Rani Bhalla relocating from Gurgaon to the young Mumbai office to increase growth.

Jones Day has promoted India-focused banking and finance partner Sushma Jobanputra as partner-in-charge of its Singapore office to succeed David Longstaff.

Khaitan & Co Mumbai has made two partner-level hires from Thakker & Thakker, which was closed at the end of last year by its founding partner in order to follow philanthropic pursuits full-time.

Private equity boutique Lexygen has taken on Yang Yen-Thaw, the Bangalore-based founder of Yang Lawyers, as a partner to relocate to its one-year-old Singapore office.

Exclusive: Delhi-based legal process outsourcing (LPO) firm Lex Forska Solutions LLP is becoming an LPO-cum-law firm also catering to domestic clients after entering into an exclusive referral alliance with Silicon Valley immigration boutique Shah Peerally Law Group PC.

Exclusive: Bharucha & Partners has opened its first office outside Mumbai, entering New Delhi with partner Kumkum Sen from Raijnder Narain & Co, nearly a year after the firm opened in a second Mumbai location.

AZB & Partners Bangalore office has promoted senior associate Anind Thomas to its partnership.