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.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai partner Ganesh Prasad has resigned to join Khaitan & Co in Bangalore as a partner.

Exclusive: Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai partner Ganesh Prasad has resigned to join Khaitan & Co in Bangalore as a partner.

Khaitan & Co has moved into a larger office in Bangalore, vowing to increase head-counts by nearly 50 per cent there within the next six months.

Exclusive: Project finance specialist India Law Services (ILS) has opened office its fourth office in Bangalore with former State Bank of India (SBI) lawyer as its head in a bid to capitalise on market opportunities in southern India.

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: Khaitan & Co has hired a Delhi start-up founder and ex-J Sagar Associate (JSA) partner Abhilekh Verma into its partnership in Bangalore.

DSK Legal will merge with 15-lawyer Bangalore litigation and real estate firm AKS Law Associates on 1 April, hoping also to ramp up the corporate offering to South India.

Exclusive: The office head of Vaish Associates’ one-year-old Bangalore office K R Vasudevan has quit for a multinational company following internal politics and the office’s strategic shift from tax to corporate work, with a Mumbai associate now taking charge of the branch.

One-and-a-half years after merging with Anup S Shah law firm in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, AZB & Partners and Anup Shah and his firm have decided to part ways as “best friends”.

Majmudar & Co has hired former ING in-houser, Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) law officer and Ministry of Corporate Affairs-officer Abdul Rasheed as an associate partner in Bangalore, as well as taking on a principal in the Mumbai tax group.

Induslaw has hired Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) partner, Bangalore head and fund investment co-head Kartik Ganapathy as an equity partner, while NDA partner Vaibhav Parikh returned from the firm’s Silicon Valley office.

Vaish Associates has opened up a Bangalore office, hiring an ex-Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer and lawyer to help it grow to 24 lawyers within a year in the city.

United Arab Emirate (UAE) firm Musthafa & Almana is starting up to four offices in Kerala and South India.

Khaitan & Co Bangalore and local boutique Menon Associates have advised on the MindTree acquisition of US handset maker Kyocera Wireless’ Indian arm for Rs 29 crores ($6m) and further consideration linked to future revenues.

AZB & Partners has promoted its first new partner after its Bangalore merger and vowed to grow its fledgling Chennai and Hyderabad presences after moving into a new office in Chennai.

AZB & Partners is relocating one of its Mumbai partners to Bangalore to ease the office’s integration process after the merger with Anup Shah’s local practice last month.

Luthra & Luthra has hired an Amarchand Mangaldas senior associate, as targeting expansion in Bangalore. The firm also paid out bonuses last week and increased base salaries earlier this year but it has delayed its announced lockstep conversion process until the end of the year.

AZB & Partners has merged with Anup Shah’s Bangalore law firm, doubling AZB’s size in the city, giving it two new bases in Chennai and Hyderabad and winning a new office managing partner.

Two staff were murdered in FoxMandal Little’s Bangalore office early on Sunday morning. The firm has closed its office there for the day as a mark of respect.