Panindia Legal has launched an office in Mumbai to be headed by former Indialaw senior partner Premlal Krishnan, who had first co-founded Indialaw as Sreeji & Law.

DMD Advocates added S&R Associates counsel Jeremy Lynn Chagas Pereira as a partner in its litigation practice, and promoted Amity Delhi 2007 alumnus Sachit Jolly to partner in its direct tax practice.

Tatva Legal Delhi-based former managing partner Shishir Sharma and two non-equity partners - Seher Ali and Natasha Tuli - are rejoining Dua Associates, the firm Sharma had left seven years ago with 50 other lawyers from Dua in one of the largest-ever breakaways in the Indian legal market.

The commerce and law ministries are unequivocally in favour of opening up the legal sector to foreign lawyers as soon as possible, reveal the full minutes of the July meeting between ministries and lawyers, though the details of how this will be done remain uncertain.

Indialaw added former HSA Advocates associate partner Sumedha Dutta as a partner in Delhi to build its corporate M&A practice.

Trilegal has voted for J Sagar Associates (JSA) Mumbai banking and finance partner Kannan Rahul to join the firm’s partnership.

Following our exclusive report of a ministry meeting with lawyer stakeholders on 28 July, at which prime minister Narendra Modi’s intention was made clear to allow foreign law firms to enter on a “top priority” basis, ET NOW has re-reported the development and interviewed two eminent senior counsel - Harish Salve and Gopal Jain - who both spoke out in favour of the prompt entry of foreign law firms.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) is offering multiple campus recruits base pay below the Rs 15-16 lakh fixed package that it had promised to students and announced to media in a record hike in 2015, that had placed the firm near the top of the fresher salary table.

Former Juris Corp partner Veena Sivaramakrishnan is joining Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas as a partner in Mumbai, as first reported by Bar & Bench.

Former DLA Piper Dubai legal director and NLSIU Bangalore 1996 alumnus Diwakar Agarwal has joined Stephenson Harwood as a partner in Dubai.

The law and commerce ministries, including law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, met with a number of stakeholders of the Indian legal profession today, paving the way for the first stage of allowing foreign law firms to set up shop in India.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) is set to meet the government tomorrow to discuss the new draft rules that will enable the entry of foreign law firms into India, reported The Lawyer (full article requires free registration) adding that the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) has already met with its members as a precursor to what SILF called the “inevitable and imminent” opening up of the legal services sector.

Samvad Partners added advocate-on-record (AOR) and NLSIU Bangalore 2005 alumnus Arjun Krishnan as a partner in Delhi, effectively from August 2017.

Khaitan & Co Bangalore general corporate and commercial partner Abhilekh Verma is set to leave the firm, after six years with it.

BMR Legal partner Vishal Kalra is set to leave the firm with his team of around 10 lawyers, once again leaving behind founding partner Mukesh Butani as the only partner in the firm.

BMR Legal’s best friend consultancy BMR Advisors will lose its corporate tax practice to Deloitte, and its M&A practice most likely to KPMG, reported Business Standard.

After national M&A head Shuva Mandal is set to join Tata Sons as group general counsel (GC) tomorrow (15 July), Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has appointed partner Raghubir Menon into the regional M&A head role.

P&C Legal, the Mumbai-based close friend alliance firm of Bangalore’s Poovayya & Co, has rebranded to become Jerome Merchant + Partners.

Karanjawala & Co added the founding partner Nishant Nigam and partner Anusuya Nigam of Delhi-based start up law firm Tryaksha Legal, as principal associates in its disputes and intellectual property (IP) practices.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) JS Khehar, as probably the first sitting CJI having been reported to do so, as far as we are aware, said at a function on Saturday (8 July) that legal market liberalisation should take place.