The 31 international law firms and one legal process outsourcing (LPO) company will now be served with notices to defend the Chennai writ petition that aims to prevent foreign firms practising any law in India.

Today, as the petitioner pressed for an injunction against the foreign firms, the government respondents’ counsels asked for time to file responses while the law ministry and Bar Council of India would “frame guidelines” on the issue.

Induslaw has hired Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) partner, Bangalore head and fund investment co-head Kartik Ganapathy as an equity partner, while NDA partner Vaibhav Parikh returned from the firm’s Silicon Valley office.

S&R Associates is set to start up its greenfield Mumbai operations with Delhi-based co-founding partner Sandip Bhagat relocating full-time to the Mumbai to service existing clients and to build a full-service practice.

Juris Corp has promoted finance partner designate Veena Sivaramakrishnan to full partnership and has lured sole practitioner Anil Mehar Singh Jarial to join the firm as a dispute resolution and real estate partner in Mumbai.

Dua Associates Mumbai partner Mahernosh Humranwala and his team are on notice to join Tatva Legal next month and will head up the half-year-old firm’s Mumbai growth efforts, which was formed by 50 former Dua lawyers.

Eleven out of 171 candidates - or 6 per cent - passed April’s examination of the Bombay Incorporate Law Society to become Bombay solicitors, as none of the 30-odd first-time test takers managed to clear the exam.

Read on to download and try your hand at the most recent test paper.

Link Legal has put pan-Indian growth further on top of its agenda, having opened up a new Mumbai office by relocating a young Delhi partner and hiring former GVK in-house counsel V Akshay Babu as its second partner in its Hyderabad office.

AZB & Partners, Trilegal, Wadia Ghandy and legal process outsourcing (LPO) company Pangea3 have hiked their basic starting salary packages to as high as Rs 11.4 lakh per year, which makes AZB as the top-paying legal recruiter in Legally India’s new law firm salary table.

The law ministry is planning to start up an Indian Legal Service (ILS) styled along the lines of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in a bid to entice top law graduates away from high-paying corporate law firms.

SRGR Law Offices, which was formed in November 2009 by four former FoxMandal Delhi partners, is now operating in a new office after separating from co-founding litigation partner Gaurav Bhatia after strategic differences on the future direction of the firm.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) has engaged former Income Tax Commissioner and the first Director General Competition Commission of India (CCI) Amitabh Kumar as a senior advisor to augment its competition and direct tax law practices in Delhi office.

Seth Dua & Associates litigation partner Neeraj Chaudhry has joined Kochhar & Co as a partner in the litigation department, which now consists of 15 lawyers inclusive of four partners in Delhi.

Vaish Associates (VA) has promoted nine associates to salaried partnership levels in its Delhi, Mumbai and Gurgaon offices as part of a comprehensive restructuring programme that includes introduction of hierarchy based designations.

Amarchand Mangaldas has replenished its Kolkata office with a partner, hiring Khaitan & Partners office head Niloy Pyne, who will also relinquish in the legal process outsourcing (LPO) company he has been helping set up in the city.

DLA Piper has launched a continental European India practice by hiring Benjamin Parameswaran and Daniel Sharma from German independents Hengeler Mueller and Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek respectively.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Delhi office has promoted principal associates Prashant Gupta and Tejas Karia to its partnership, with Gupta being the firm’s first full-time capital markets partner outside of Mumbai and Bangalore, while Mumbai has made up principal associate Vandana Pai Bharucha.

The general counsel (GC) of Mumbai International Airport and counsel of infrastructure company GVK Group has started up his own law firm by the name Advaya Legal, hoping to capture corporate, projects and litigation work.

Sandeep Parekh, current IIM Ahmedabad visiting associate faculty and former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) executive director in enforcement and legal affairs, is setting up a Mumbai financial law boutique Finsec Law Advisors with a three-stage growth plan.

Luthra & Luthra has hired its first full-time M&A corporate partner in Mumbai, taking former Clifford Chance senior associate and Trilegal partner Sudipta Routh to diversify the office from its current finance focus.

Seven lawyers, including a Jharkhand sole proprietor, his ex-Khaitan & Co associate daughter, a young Rajastani legal practitioner, an intellectual property (IP) lawyer and a Supreme Court counsel, have banded together to co-found Juris Vista Law Chambers with offices in Delhi, Jaipur and Ranchi.