Law firm Khaitan & Co has promoted 11 of its lawyers to partnership, of whom 6 are women, growing to a total size of 152 partners (with 13 female partners), and is now at 578 fee-earners.

The firm has also promoted two to counsel, growing those ranks to 11.

The new partners are:

• Anisha Chand (Mumbai, competition; Mumbai University 2011)
• Anushka Sharda (Delhi, disputes; ILS Pune 2009)
• Aravind Venugopal (Mumbai, corporate; HNLU Raipur 2010)
• Pashupati Nath (Delhi, corporate; NLU Jodhpur 2009)
• Rishabh Bharadwaj (Bangalore, corporate; GNLU Gandhinagar 2011)
• Saman Ahsan (Delhi, disputes; NLIU Bhopal 2009)
• Sanjay Khan Nagra (Bangalore, corporate; GNLU Gandhinagar 2011)
• Shailendra Bhandare (Mumbai, IP; GLC Mumbai 2004)
• Smriti Yadav (Mumbai, IP; Mumbai University LLB 2003; LLM Mumbai University 2005)
• Suhana Islam Murshedd (Kolkata, corporate; GLC Mumbai)
• Tanvi Kumar (Delhi, corporate; ILS Pune 2009)

The new counsel are:

• Anuj Sahay (Delhi, energy, infra & resources)
• Soumya Mohapatra (Mumbai, capital markets)

Three in the partnership list are 2011 graduates - Anisha Chand from GLC, and two are GNLU Gandhinagar graduates (Rishabh Bharadwaj and Sanjay Khan Nagra) - giving them a PQE of 8 years, which is below the Big 6 average of 9.1 years according to our 2014 research.

Both GNLU grads are working in Bangalore partner Ganesh Prasad’s team, where Khan was involved in such big ticket transactions as the Walmart Flipkart takeover, while Bharadwaj acted on the $300m Ola Hyundai deal.

Amar Sinhji, Khaitan executive director HR, commented in the firm’s press release: “We will continue in a steady manner on our growth path with our young leaders now driving this growth, while at the same time ensuring that we do not deviate from our culture and ethos.”

The firm’s press release boasted that the firm had “attracted some of the best legal talent from India and overseas”, while “the Indian legal market has witnessed dynamic changes this year. Be it the changed regulatory environment brought about by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), changes in the regulatory framework on e-commerce, GST, or complex M&A and private equity transactions”.

“It has been a very busy year for us,” added Khaitan senior partner Haigreve Khaitan in the release. “The market was good from a foreign investment and strategic or distressed M&A perspective. We have been able to showcase our strengths across practices, on a number of complex and unique deals, involving diverse practices.

“We have emerged as a one-stop firm of choice for most of our clients when it comes to legal services. We are very pleased to work with clients from a variety of sectors, including defence, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, real estate, fin-tech, securities, etc.”