The Madras High Court today adjourned the A K Balaji writ against 31 foreign law firms to 22 September for final hearing and disposal of the case as the Bar Council of India (BCI) filed its reply in favour of the petitioners.

After taking on more space in Delhi, Khaitan & Co has hired Bangalore independent Anindita Phukan as a partner and vowed to grow both offices with Mumbai as a model, accepting that they needed to improve local market recognition.

Exclusive: ALMT Legal, following its split from Clyde & Co and a number of partners in April, has re-started offices in London and Delhi with two lateral hires joining as partners while Mumbai partners Sameer Tapia and Hitesh Jain will relocate part-time.

Exclusive: Vaish Associates Delhi-based senior associate Sachit Jolly will relocate to Mumbai to start the firm’s direct tax law practice in Mumbai.

Finsec Law Advisors has taken on its first lateral partner, with ARA Law senior associate Indrajit Mishra coming on board to build the transactional private equity practice at the financial sector advisory boutique.

AZB & Partners has promoted Mumbai capital markets senior associate Varoon Chandra to partner.

Mumbai solicitors firm Crawford Bayley has created a new associate partner non-equity rung with six senior associates having been elevated to the new position, following the last partnership promotion round at the firm 10 years ago.

The firms would give preference in referring work to each other as “best friends” but would remain non-exclusive in line with Indian restrictions, Pant and Ashurst India head Richard Gubbins told Legally India.

Exclusive: Clients have been most impressed with associates at S&R Associates and Vaish Associates, according to a survey from consultancy RSG India, as Amarchand Mangaldas and AZB & Partners topped a ranking of Indian best law firms.

In the last year Indian law firms also grew lawyer headcounts by an average of 20 per cent while partner numbers only increased by 5 per cent.

Diwakar Agarwal has joined DLA Piper’s Middle-Eastern practice as legal director in the firm’s Dubai office to focus on India-related legal work flowing into the region.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co Delhi-based associate partner Rahul Ray and senior associate Shahana Farah have left to join Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan (LKS) as partners along with their team of five lawyers with effect from 1 July 2011.

Clyde & Co senior associate Sidanth Rajagopal has left to become a Delhi-based aviation partner at Clasis Law, the UK firm’s new Indian best friend law firm that split from ALMT Legal in April of this year.

Exclusive: A former Platinum Partners associate and an ex-SEBI and in-house bank lawyer have started a new Mumbai law firm specialising in capital markets and securities law called Prism Partners Advocates.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners has appointed senior partner Abhijit Joshi into the newly created chief executive officer (CEO) role, overseeing strategy of the Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune offices while continuing in his client-facing duties.

Kochhar & Co managing partner Rohit Kochhar has withdrawn a case against Legally India in the Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal on Friday, which had passed a stay order five weeks ago prohibiting Legally India from publishing any material relating to any of Kochhar’s disputes.

Exclusive: HSA Advocates Mumbai partner and office head Utsa Shome, who had joined the firm in 2009 from AZB & Partners, will head up Kolkata firm Argus Partners’ new Mumbai office.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Vishnu Jerome is intending to set up a new law firm after his AZB resignation takes effect from the end of this month.

Exclusive: Vidhii Partners will open up an office in Delhi with three former Paras Kuhad Associates lawyers and has taken two senior industry experts onto its internal advisory board to bolster its new media practice and growth strategy.

Juris Corp has absorbed AM Law, the practice of Bombay solicitor Mustafa Motiwala and six lawyers, bulking up the firm’s management capacity and advisory strength.

Exclusive: MDP & Partners has hired two corporate J Sagar Associates (JSA) senior associates as equity partners to bring up its total strength to eight partners.