Amarchand Mangaldas and Luthra & Luthra have each racked up over $10bn worth of deals to top the M&A Indian mergermarket league table for the first quarter of 2012, displacing 2011 first quarter (Q1) frontrunner AZB & Partners.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Delhi office won for Coal India (CIL) yesterday in its Competition Commission of India (CCI) complaint against 10 explosives manufacturers fined and held to have engaged in anti-competitive practices.

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Bangalore office advised Japan’s largest non-life insurer Mitsui Sumitomo in its Rs 2,731 crore ($530m) purchase of 26 per cent in the joint venture (JV) of Indian insurer Max India and US insurer New York Life Insurance, which were respectively advised by AZB & Partners and Paul Weiss, and Platinum Partners and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.

Fourteen law firms kept busy in a sideways economy with 14 deals in corporate, private equity and banking and finance. Find out what the industry has been up to.

The newsletter is back after a two month break. Catch up on all legal news and happenings you may have missed.

Exclusively: Khaitan & Co is actively scouting to open Chennai and Hyderabad offices as Amarchand Mangaldas lateral partner Ganesh Prasad started in the Bangalore office yesterday with a remit to focus on South India.

S&R Associates and Jones Day advised the book running lead managers (LMs) Kotak Mahindra Capital and UBS Securities India on the first ever Institutional Placement Programme (IPP) in India. Indian realty major Godrej Properties’ (GPL) issued a private placement of Rs 4.9 bn ($95m) of equity shares worth Rs 575 each. GPL was advised by Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co.

S&R Associates and Jones Day advised the book running lead managers (LMs) Kotak Mahindra Capital and UBS Securities India on the first ever Institutional Placement Programme (IPP) in India. Indian realty major Godrej Properties’ (GPL) issued a private placement of Rs 4.9 bn ($95m) of equity shares worth Rs 575 each. GPL was advised by Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co.

Khaitan & Co and Japanese law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Tokyo advised Asian private insurance leader Nippon Life Insurance on the largest ever Indian mutual fund investment. Nippon purchased a Rs 1450 crore ($290m) 26 per cent stake in Indian asset management leader Reliance Capital ...

Khaitan & Co and Japanese law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, Tokyo advised Asian private insurance leader Nippon Life Insurance on the largest ever Indian mutual fund investment. Nippon purchased a Rs 1450 crore ($290m) 26 per cent stake in Indian asset management leader Reliance Capital ...

Amarchand Mangaldas scored a first-time mandate for Japanese conglomerate NEC Corporation in assisting Davis Polk & Wardwell in its $449m (Rs 2280 crore) acquisition of US telecoms company Convergys Corporation’s information management (IM) business.

Legally India’s round-up of the latest 15 cases and deals and their legal advisers, including Luthra’s defence of Yahoo! India in two high-profile cases, and a massive boom in debt capital markets – but only one equity cap markets deal for AZB.

Luthra & Luthra represented private equity funds Barings Private Equity Partners, Siguler Guff and Sequoia Capital on their 4 per cent equity investment in listed gold loan company Manappuram Finance, which was represented by Amarchand Mangaldas’ Bangalore office. Luthra and Luthra Delhi-based ...

Indian Music Industry obtains Cal HC order blocking 104 Indian music websites for piracy Radioreloaded, songsPK, funmaza, and everything else on the list [ Medianama ] Economic Times’ take on law firms: The Amarchand ‘churan’ and AZB ‘sandwich stacks’ compared and contrasted [ ET ] CJI Kapadia sets ...

Indian Music Industry obtains Cal HC order blocking 104 Indian music websites for piracy Radioreloaded, songsPK, funmaza, and everything else on the list [ Medianama ] Economic Times’ take on law firms: The Amarchand ‘churan’ and AZB ‘sandwich stacks’ compared and contrasted [ ET ] CJI Kapadia sets ...

Six deals in brief covering capital markets, M&A, competition law and more.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi office has scooped the mandate to merge Vedanta’s Sterlite Industries unit with Sesa Goa to decrease the mining conglomerate’s debt.

17 deals and cases in brief this week, spanning M&A, a raft of financings, private equity, debt and equity capital markets and litigation.

In today’s edition of Mint: Legally India reveals Cyril and Shardul Shroff’s, and Boston Consulting Group’s masterplan to take the firm to the next level of a Rs 1,000 crore ($203m) turnover, while securing the future of future generations of the family.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff will start a separate company that will offer virtual international arbitration services from India, and includes its own arbitration rules and state-of-the-art technology.