Senior advocate and parliamentarian Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the Dua Associates-led group of US firms in the Chennai writ petition against 31 foreign law firms today, asking the court to adjourn until after the Bar Council of India (BCI) would take a decisive stance this weekend.

Norton Rose has failed to secure a work permit for one of its future trainees and has had to turn away a handful of Indian interns as the legal sector continues to grapple with the UK Border Agency’s (UKBA) points-based work permit system.

ARA Law has hired Kanga & Co partner Ashish Bhakta as a partner to head its infrastructure practice.

Trilegal is awaiting a response from the Bar Council of India (BCI) on whether the firm is allowed to convert to a limited liability partnership (LLP) under the Advocates Act, as start-up Vidhii Partners vowed to convert to LLP in two months and Luthra & Luthra, Nishith Desai Associates, IndusLaw and at least eight other firms have reserved respective LLP names.

Amarchand, Luthra & Luthra, Khaitan & Co and Trilegal have all ramped up their basic starter pay above Rs 10 lakhs, with offered packages including bonuses now running up to Rs 15 lakh at the top end.

The government appears to have scrapped plans to move the Chennai writ petition against 31 foreign law firms to the Supreme Court, as law firms Dua Associates and Kachwaha & Partners alongside a raft of senior counsel appeared for nine US firms, Slaughter and May, the LPO Integreon, and two Australian firms.

The petitioner’s plea for an injunction against the foreign firms was stayed for two weeks until the government and foreign firms could formulate responses.

Platinum Partners Mumbai office has hired a senior lawyer from White & Case in Singapore to bulk up its second layer of corporate fee-earners in the young office.

Kochhar & Co has entered into two best-friend alliances with law firms in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the firm said in a press release.

Rodney Ryder has merged his practice with young start-up law firm ANM Global, spinning off his Scriboard company into a separate entity for legal education.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Mumbai region offices have made 2011 job offers for 41 students, most recently picking up 12 each from GNLU Gandhinagar and Nalsar Hyderabad, nine from NUJS Kolkata and eight from NLSIU Bangalore. Last year the firm had recruited the equivalent number of freshers from only three campuses more than a month later.

Clifford Chance expects to have an office in India by late 2012 said the firm’s senior partner Stuart Popham, vowing to keep pushing the liberalisation agenda in India despite a lack of “overnight” results during his visit as part of the UK prime minister’s delegation.

Trilegal has hired its first full-time partner in Hyderabad with DS Associates’ co-founder Pavan Kumar joining to take advantage of the recovering economy after the firm scaled down in the city during the global downturn.

Suman Khaitan’s Khaitan & Partners has moved to a bigger office in Delhi to combine its litigation and corporate law practices which until now were servicing clients from two different locations, aiming to further expand after the consolidation.

Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham is the law firm representative on British prime minister David Cameron’s India delegation this week, representing the UK legal and financial professional services community as head of a new trade body.

Luthra & Luthra’s capital markets practice has increased its leverage structure with the hire of its alumni Indraneel Basu Majumdar as a managing associate on “partnership track” from Clifford Chance.

The Indian government will attempt to move the Chennai writ petition against 31 foreign firms to the Supreme Court in order to take a “broader perspective” and make a “final decision” on the entry of foreign law firms said law minister Veerappa Moily, according to newspaper reports.

A Mumbai Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has found that Linklaters should pay income tax in India on all India-related profits after applying a retrospective Finance Bill 2010 amendment to section 9(1) of the Income Tax Act, going against the latest decision in the Clifford Chance tax battle that is currently in the Indian Supreme Court.

Suman Khaitan’s partnership firm Khaitan & Partners has replaced its ex-Kolkata office head Niloy Pyne who joined Amarchand Mangaldas last month, by hiring independent practitioner and former Amarchand senior associate Niladri Bhattacharjee as a partner to manage Kolkata.

Kochhar & Co has started a niche corporate fraud, ethics and integrity practice by hiring expatriate solicitor Abhinav Mohindru as partner and consultant from a UK regional firm.

As the Madras High Court decided on Wednesday (7 July) to serve 31 foreign law firms with the petition that seeks to prevent them from operating in India, respondent firms and local corporate lawyers have expressed confidence that firms’ India businesses would remain largely unaffected.