Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi partners and husband and wife team Harry Chawla and Niti Paul, who were first reported to be leaving in September, are “in the process of setting up our new firm” under the name Atlas Law Partners, Chawla told Bar & Bench.

Kochhar & Co Delhi partner Ricky Chopra has gone independent again, setting up Ricky Chopra - International Counsels in Gurgaon with immediate plans to expand with tie-ups in New York and Chandigarh, possibly followed by Mumbai.

Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas has promoted Arjun Ghose, Shruti Kanodia, Nitesh Jain and Manjari Tyagi to partner.

Kochhar & Co added ALMT Legal partner Gautam Bhatikar as a senior partner and co-head of the Mumbai office of the firm. Bhatikar has joined the firm with ALMT senior associate Zoeb Cutlerywala.

The seven largest law firms in India have grown their headcounts by an average of around 20% in the last one-and-a-half years. Of those, the fastest-growing such as Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Khaitan & Co, had expanded fee-earner headcounts by 45% and 35% respectively, while others such as AZB & partners’ partnership ballooned by 75%.

Economic Laws Practice (ELP) added former Ashurst London senior associate Akshay Kishore as an associate partner in Mumbai.

Economic Laws Practice (ELP) Chennai head and partner Karthik Sundaram left the firm on 14 October to go into counsel practice, around 14 days after former managing partner Rohan Shah formally retired from the firm to become a counsel.

As first reported by us in August, two PwC indirect tax experts have now joined in partner-equivalent positions as executive and associate directors in Mumbai.

Opening up of professional services appeared to have been discussed by the delegation headed by UK prime minister Theresa May with the Indian government today, with British justice secretary Elizabeth Truss having said that May would “pave the way for UK lawyers to practise there” after she was asked about the progress of liberalisation in the UK parliament.

Argus Partners merged with Mumbai firm P&P Legal, adding its founding partner Prakash Panjabi as an equity partner and Panjabi’s son and the other P&P Legal partner Pritish Panjabi as a partner in its Mumbai office.

Siddharth Raja, who was a co-founder of Narasappa, Doraswamy & Raja that later became Samvad Partners, will join Argus Partners in Bangalore as a senior partner and national executive director, with a remit to also oversee the firm’s Chennai practice.

Economic Laws Practice Mumbai associate partner Sumit Rai left the firm in October to go into counsel practice.

Luthra & Luthra Mumbai senior banking and finance partner Vijaya Rao is now an of counsel working part time with the firm.

Luthra & Luthra Delhi projects partner Rajesh Chavda has left the firm.

Kochhar & Co has added Gulf-based lawyer Nikhat Sardar Khan as a partner in its Dubai office.

Link Legal India Law Services promoted Delhi University 2007 graduates Abhishek Sharma and Sarojanand Jha from associate to associate partner.

HSA Advocates added former Apollo Tyres global chief legal counsel Atulya Sharma as a banking and finance partner, in Delhi.

Phoenix Legal has promoted Mumbai-and-Chennai-based corporate principal associate Sriram Ramachandran to its partnership, with effect from 1 November.

The settlement of arbitration between Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) and former Chennai partner Dorothy Thomas have completed today, with the Bombay high court bench of Justice Kathawalla today recording the filing of consent terms.

Link Legal India Law Services has hired AZB & Partners senior associate Ashutosh Narang as an associate partner in its Mumbai banking and finance team.