Amarchand Mangaldas has promoted eight principal associates to partnership in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, hired White & Case associate Raghubir Menon as a partner and promoted Irish competition lawyer Paku Khan as a partner-equivalent director.

Lawyers generally have a conservative relationship with technology although once embraced it can become (sometimes unhealthily) symbiotic. The general argument goes: “Things have always worked for me this way, why do I need anything to change?”

Exclusive: Trilegal has internally promoted the first two salaried partners into its equity partner lockstep since the Phoenix Legal breakaway, with Mumbai corporate partners Nishant Parikh and Amit Tambe starting on the first rung of the firm’s 13 year lockstep.

Luthra & Luthra has promoted three Delhi lawyers to partnership and will buy German-made cars for five partners, as a raft of associates have been promoted to senior and managing associate levels.

Managing a law firm tends to become harder rather than easier with size. Acknowledging this, in what is still a largely symbolic step albeit with potential future significance, AZB Mumbai has created a new top-level management function outside of the name partners.

Exclusive: AZB & Partners has appointed senior partner Abhijit Joshi into the newly created chief executive officer (CEO) role, overseeing strategy of the Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune offices while continuing in his client-facing duties.

Everyone loves cake, particularly lawyers who really like cakes that just keep growing. Unfortunately cakes do not do so without hard work so this week many have been busy baking.

Exclusive: Trilegal Delhi lawyers Harsh Pais and Yogesh Singh were elevated to the firm’s salaried partnership, as the firm overshot its fee-earner bonus budget after having instituted a new system.

To overcome challenges and enhance the profitability of law firms, Legal League Consulting is conducting India’s First Management Workshop for Law Firms on “Creating Sustainability and enhancing profitability through Business Development” scheduled on 12 March 2011 at India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. The Workshop will be inaugurated by Mr. Lalit Bhasin, President, Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF).

EXCLUSIVE: Khaitan & Co has hired Symbiosis graduate Rajat Mukherjee as an “associate partner”, which is the first time a non-equity salaried partner has joined the firm under the revamped partnership structure.

Hemant Sahai Associates and Paras Kuhad & Associates have split only two months after announcing the ill-fated merger of their practices to create PHA Advocates.

Amarchand Mangaldas has been increasingly turning to the UK and Ireland for talent making three innovative hires in recent weeks alone. So what is the Shroffs’ game plan? Is Amarchand spreading its wings to turn into a global law firm?

Amarchand Mangaldas Mumbai has created the role of chief operating officer (COO) and filled the post with a former UK firm’s COO who will create a 100-day-plan to improve internal management at the firm.

Khaitan & Co and Trilegal have taken the first formal steps towards becoming limited liability partnerships (LLP) by registering their LLP names.

rupees_med Many law firms would probably pay consultants an arm and a leg for this advice. Inspired by FoxMandal Delhi’s recent cash flow woes, regular Legally India commenter Legal Dodo posted an interesting list for law firms to save money. For free! While Legal Dodo is happy to admit that some of...

FoxMandal Little’s Delhi office has paid its fee-earners the salaries it owed them, after the firm was unable to pay for two months due to cash flow difficulties.

Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi’s joint chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO) Bithika Anand has resigned after almost 11 years with the firm, as Amarchand Delhi’s auditors have temporarily stepped in until a replacement can be found.

For an Indian firm, going under the wing of an international firm is not necessarily as appealing as some might suppose and could even be downright dangerous.

FoxMandal Little has not been able to pay fee-earners in Delhi their salaries as the office faces a liquidity crisis.

Long delays in recovering fees has become an increasing a problem for law firms whose clients are caught in the credit crunch, most recently preventing FoxMandal Little in Delhi from paying some of its staff their salaries.

“Lock-up is a big issue for most firms these days in particular collections on long-overdue invoices,” says Kerma Partners legal consultant Friedrich Blase in New York and adds: “It’s become harder for firms to collect on the work produced.”