Exclusive: Ex-Amarchand Mangaldas tax head Aseem Chawla has started a tax, business and corporate advisory law firm called MPC Legal with two co-founding partners, as the “best friend” firm of chartered accountancy (CA) firm Mohinder Puri & Co.

Trilegal advised ICICI Bank and a consortium of lending banks in the Rs 8,300 crore ($1.5bn) debt restructuring of Mumbai-based engineering and construction major Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) which was advised by Amarchand Mangaldas.

Juris Corp, I&S Associates, Indus Law, MDP & Partners, along with Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co, Luthra & Luthra, Trilegal and others kept busy on 15 selected deals.

M&As and capital markets transactions take a marginal lead over litigation, competition and private equity and venture capital deals, in our three-week roundup.

Exclusive interview: The Angel’s Share – the debut novel written by NLSIU Bangalore 2008 graduate and former Amarchand Mangaldas associate Satyajit Sarna - hit bookstores on Friday.

“I know that for me exorcism, or cleaning yourself out, or coming to terms with things, is by writing about them”, says Sarna. “At some point it just built up and I thought to myself: There’s a story here and someone needs to tell it. And I thought, I should tell this story.”

This fortnight’s deals package conspicuously features international investors, not only in terms of cross-border M&As and investments but also on the litigation side.

Exclusive: NLSIU Bangalore’s graduating class of 65 this year secured 46 jobs across 18 Indian and foreign organisations. The recruitment coordination committee (RCC) placed 35 students in 12 organisations. One-fifth of the class is headed to Luthra & Luthra Law Offices.

LI-Mint exclusive: Law firms saw a slump in earnings from their capital markets business in the year that ended March. Many that had invested heavily in the practice during the boom years adopted various strategies to cope with the decline.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB with international firms Jones Day and Penningtons advised Bharti Airtel on its $165m purchase of Qualcomm 4G spectrum licences in India, according to several sources close to the deal.

Exclusive: Legal Process Outsourcing Unit (LPO) Pangea 3 was the only recruiter visiting HNLU Raipur’s rural Abhanpur campus for the class graduating this year, but 19 out of 60 total students secured jobs across 10 law firms, two LPOs and a company. The Recruitment Coordination Committee (RCC) placed 12 out of its 31 subscribers from the graduating batch.

Mergers and joint ventures lead last month’s largest deals, while private equity, capital markets, litigation and competition policy also nestle in.

Former Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi Associate and NLSIU Bangalore 2001 graduate Pranav Sharma will return to head the Delhi finance and insolvency practice of the firm this August, after six years at Linklaters London.

25 out of 76 students in NLSIU’s class of 2013 were placed across seven law firms and a foreign firm after 47 students participated in the law school’s so-called “Day Zero” on 12 May 2012, when six law firms and a foreign firm visited the campus.

Amarchand Mangaldas, Trilegal and Majmudar have hired 14 fourth-year students from NLU Jodhpur, as the final year has seen 45 41 job offers for 51 52 campus placement participants.

**

Exclusive: Around 50 out of 82 NLIU Bhopal students graduating this year participated in the campus recruitment activities, out of whom 31 found employment with recruiters led by Amarchand Mangaldas, two legal process outsourcing (LPO) units, a public sector undertaking, a private company and ICICI Bank.

Amarchand Mangaldas has internally promoted 13 lawyers to partnership today, with an even split between the Mumbai and Delhi offices.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi partner and head of tax Aseem Chawla has resigned, as the firm aims to refill the gap in its ranks.

Last month’s largest deals and the legal advisers that guided and benefited from them.

Bharucha & Partners advised Axis Bank that sold 25 per cent of its shares in Axis Asset Management to Amarchand Mangaldas-advised Schroders.

Exclusive: Around 40 fourth-year students at Nalsar Hyderabad, GNLU Gandhinagar and NLIU Bhopal have been hired by law firms led by Amarchand Mangaldas and Trilegal, after the three colleges held their so-called recruitment “day zero” events weeks ahead of traditional first mover NLSIU Bangalore.

Amarchand Mangaldas has launched its Ahmedabad practice, inaugurating its Prahladnagar office today, relocating corporate partner Pankaj Agarwal full-time and Delhi litigation head Tejas Karia to start a dispute resolution practice part-time.