Linklaters best friend Talwar Thakore & Associates has leased a new office in the Fort area with 70 per cent more floor space, bucking the recent trend of Mumbai firms moving North.

Legally India is a big fan of South Mumbai but the city’s centre of legal gravity is gradually shifting North.

Both Khaitan & Co and Trilegal will take up residence in a new development in Lower Parel, joining Amarchand and several smaller firms in the area.

Last month Phoenix Legal also took a new address above the trendy nightspot Blue Frog in Lower Parel; the new office has a capacity of 30 but the firm is currently only six lawyers strong there.

The two co-founders of Paras Kuhad & Associates’s Mumbai have quit as one is to start a new law firm and the remaining office continues working on last week’s merger with Hemant Sahai Associates.

Amarchand Mangaldas has hired the former general counsel of private equity firm Sun Apollo as a partner for its Mumbai private equity and M&A practice.

Bharucha & Partners has taken over a Mumbai niche corporate practice, gaining the first new equity partner since setting up.

After a near-hiatus for almost one year the IPO pipeline has finally filled up this July. No company wants to be left behind by the cheap cash-for-equity gravy train, the gold rush now appears to be self-sustaining – at least for the time being.

The distribution of spoils among Indian law firms is likely to be less even-handed.

Kochhar & Co has hired an Amarchand Mangaldas designated senior associate for its corporate team in Mumbai, vowing “aggressive” expansion in the city.

One of Juris Corp’s senior associates has rejoined the firm after a three year stint in-house at ICICI Bank and in the last three months the firm has also taken on six lawyers from law school and two junior lawyers returning after completing LLMs abroad.

Desai & Diwanji has poached a team of four lawyers from Crawford Bayley, taking on one senior associate as a partner.

Thakker & Thakker has made up its first female partner, growing its partnership to a total of five.

Clifford Chance is seconding the head partner of its India practice group to its best friend AZB & Partners.

Clifford Chance project finance partner Chris Wyman (pictured) will relocate to AZB’s Mumbai office this month and will spend at least several months there to improve the integration between the firms.

Wyman said that he would stay “as long as it takes” and added: “It is all about maximising the opportunities – if you just say nice words and do nothing else, you will soon cease to be useful.”

Khaitan & Co has made up a former PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) chartered accountant-cum-lawyer to partner.

Sanjay Sanghvi (pictured) only qualified as a lawyer after joining Khaitan in January 2008 from PwC. He is the third new member to the law firm’s partnership in as many months.

He said that working in a law firm was very satisfying: “In accountancy firms you typically do compliance work and you don’t go deeper into the law and interpretation.

Trilegal spin-off Phoenix Legal has added two associates in Delhi, vowing to significantly expand its practice there and in Mumbai with lateral hires.

The firm is hoping to hire a lateral partner for its Mumbai office and to double it in size to 10 lawyers by the end of the year.

Phoenix founding partner Abhishek Saxena said: “We are looking around for a couple of candidates. Although we’d be keen to get a partner, if it does not materialise we may want to get a very senior associate.”

Luthra & Luthra is ramping up its Mumbai capital markets practice after hiring alumnus and new group head Manan Lahoty from US firm Shearman & Sterling in London.

Lahoty (pictured) will lead the Mumbai capital markets team of five associates, reporting to capital markets partner Madhurima Mukherjee in Delhi and her team of 10 lawyers.

Until now, Mukherjee had managed the Luthra & Luthra Mumbai team from Delhi but she admitted that this was difficult to do from a distance. “When Manan wanted to come back the logical choice was to send him to Bombay,” she said.

Delhi-headquartered law firm King Stubb & Kasiva is set to open a new office in Mumbai within months and has added a new equity partner to its head office ranks.

The firm is currently finalising the negotiations with up to two partners from Mumbai firms to spearhead its new office.

Managing partner Jidesh Kumar (pictured) said: “The Mumbai office would be banking, finance and infrastructure focused. We are looking at having an infrastructure partner from one of the top five law firms there.”

Khaitan & Co has continued its aggressive lateral hiring strategy, taking partner Prabjot Singh Bhullar from AZB & Partners.

Bhullar (pictured) was based in AZB’s Mumbai office but will relocate to Delhi, where he will significantly bolster Khaitan’s infrastructure and projects capacity.

Khaitan partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala said that the firm was keen to expand in infrastructure and tax, in order to improve cross selling opportunities to the firm’s domestic clients.

Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co has poached two Mumbai partners from competitors as it hopes to widen its partnership.

The firm has hired Luthra & Luthra corporate partner Ashish Jejurkar and Mulla & Mulla & Blunt & Caroe infrastructure partner Tushar Mavani.

Amarchand managing partner Cyril Shroff (pictured) told UK legal magazine The Lawyer: “These two people have the right temperament and drive to be part of our vision.