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.

AZB & Partners and international law firm Shearman & Sterling advised a Canadian financial holdings company’s investment subsidiary Fairbridge Capital in its purchase of 76.81 per cent equity for Rs 817 crore ($150m) in British holiday maker Thomas Cook Group’s (TCG) Indian subsidiary Thomas Cook India (TCIL). TCG was advised by Trilegal with international best friend law firm Allen & Overy.

AZB & Partners and international law firm Shearman & Sterling advised a Canadian financial holdings company’s investment subsidiary Fairbridge Capital in its purchase of 76.81 per cent equity for Rs 817 crore ($150m) in British holiday maker Thomas Cook Group’s (TCG) Indian subsidiary Thomas Cook India (TCIL). TCG was advised by Trilegal with international best friend law firm Allen & Overy.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) and international law firm DLA Piper advised Dutch pension services provider APG Strategic Real Estate pool Netherlands in its Rs 650 crore ($123m) investment in leading Indian hotel chain Lemon Tree Hotels and its subsidiary Fleur Hotels which were advised by AZB & Partners.

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

Exclusive: 57 out of a class of 100 NUJS Kolkata students graduating this year secured jobs with 26 organizations, through a mix of campus recruitment and applying independently, while almost a third of the remaining class opted to appear for civil and judicial service exams.

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.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners Mumbai equity partner Yogesh Bhattarai has internally announced that he would leave the firm to go on a one-year sabbatical.

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

J Sagar Associates advised TVS Logistics Services, opposite AZB & Partners’ Mumbai and Delhi offices that respectively advised Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) on its first round of funding and Goldman Sachs on its second investment into the Indian logistics company that has plans to aggressively expand abroad.

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.

AZB & Partners advised Nasdaq-listed information technology services company iGate Corp in its Rs 1,400 crore ($271m) voluntary delisting of its Mumbai-based unit Patni computer systems, which was jointly advised by Wadia Ghandy and international law firm Hogan Lovells.

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’ 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.

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.

AZB & Partners has for the first time advised L Capital, the private equity arm of luxury goods giant Louis Vuitton Moët Hennesy (LVMH), which bought 8 per cent in Indian clothes and lifestyle product retailer Fabindia from Wolfensohn Capital Partners, which was represented by Luthra & Luthra. Menon Associates is understood to be representing Premji Invest on its 7 per cent investment.

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 ...

Exclusive: AZB & Partners Delhi has promoted corporate senior associate and 2000 NLSIU Bangalore graduate Debashish Sankhari to its partnership yesterday.

AZB & Partners picked up the Westlaw-SILF cup 2012 after defeating a heterogeneous lawyers’ team named Lawyers United by seven wickets in the finals of the annual law firm cricket tournament held at Hamdard University, Delhi on Sunday evening.