Khaitan & Co has internally rolled out a set of guidelines to improve staff and fee-earners’ well-being as the pandemic has caused turnovers and workloads to grow, while traditional physical office support networks and the ability to switch off have largely disappeared for many.

From 1 Nishith Desai Associates is extending its unlimited leave policy to all lawyers come 1 January 2021. This is an expansion of the flexible leave / unlimited holiday model the firm had trialled since 2017 for all lawyers who had worked at the firm for longer than 1,000 days.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) has postponed the opening of its physical offices until 31 March 2021 “pending the resolution of the health crisis”, from when it will introduce a policy that will allow staff to work from home (WFH) and more flexibly, according to a press release from the firm earlier today.

Juris Corp has increased its intake of interns by taking its internship programme “virtual”, as the continuing Covid-19 pandemic has made physical internships all but impossible.

Khaitan & Co has set out a number of progressive human resources (HR) policies to facilitate flexible working, including some additional maternity (and paternity) benefits and compensatory time-off when workloads get extreme or interfere with pre-arranged holidays.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas has hired AZB & Partners’ Mumbai HR head Kiran Patheja for its HR function, as head of talent acquisition, reported Bar & Bench.

Tata Capital human resources group head Amar Sinhji joined Khaitan as executive director, human resources, after Khaitan & Co’s human resources head of six years Swapnakant Samal left to join Human Capital Consulting as a consultant in April. Khaitan Mumbai partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala told Le...

Khaitan & Co has cut down its working week to Monday to Friday, while increasing the daily working hours by one hour from 1 March.

Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan has hired former BMR Legal partner Raghavendra Rao as an executive director to head its direct tax practice.

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai region has promoted 13 of its lawyers to principal associate and 20 to senior associate.

… less and less the older they get… Research by UK-headquartered international firm Eversheds, after interviewing 1,800 young lawyers to shed light on the ‘future leaders’ of the legal profession, revealed that female lawyers earned on average 30 per cent more than their male counterparts when aged ...

Amarchand Mangaldas emerged as the large law firm with the highest ratio of female lawyers ranked by the 2014 Chambers and Partners lawyer directory, while J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Trilegal came lowest with as few as 6 per cent of senior female lawyers.

Amarchand is the fourth major Indian law firm to have made it (mostly) mandatory for fresher recruits to rotate between different departments for the first eighteen months. J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Khaitan & Co also swear by it; Trilegal was less enamoured. Is it the new standard or just a fad?

“I’m not nervous about it,” claims Jyoti Sagar about surrendering the last 7-odd per cent of equity he holds in the firm he started more than 20 years ago. “It is something I have known for 10 years, not something sudden.”

“Our model is well–known but people have carried the impression that it’s just a model but not for real. But people are trying to figure out what’s going on [now that I’m actually retiring].”

An announcement from Harvard Law School’s Brittany Brewer, who’s currently in India carrying out some interesting research. Do help if you can, it looks interesting.

In today’s edition of Mint: A lot of Indian law firms are run like the personal fiefdom of a senior or founding partner. The senior partners are a law unto themselves and are neither accountable internally nor externally. Such systems can breed unique pressures and cultures, quite separately from associate satisfaction with their salaries.

Dhir & Dhir Associates has appointed former Singhania & Partners chief executive officer (CEO) Manju Mohotra as its first ever CEO on 1 August, aiming to expand its insolvency and restructuring practice, and to set up in Chandigarh.

Workplaces are structured to lose the women along the career ladder and colleagues’ and bosses’ attitudes do usually not alleviate the loss, was a hot topic of discussion in a room of 80 women at the Society of Women Lawyers’ (SOWL) annual conference in Delhi on Saturday.

Exclusive: Khaitan & Co has not promoted any partners internally in its annual promotion round after internally restructuring its associate and partnership track, nine associates were promoted to senior associate level and one lateral associate partner joined in Mumbai.

Exclusive: Talwar Thakore & Associates (TTA) has hiked its starting graduate retainer salary to Rs 10.5 lakh alongside base pay-band increases of between 10 and 20 per cent across the board.