The founding partner of FoxMandal’s London office, who resigned in September, will set up his own firm in the New Year in an alliance with UK firm Wragge & Co.

Exclusive: Fox Mandal Delhi’s London founding partner Ajit Mishra has resigned from the firm, as the firm has left its old office and moved into a new one in the UK’s financial capital.

Exclusive: Advaya Legal, the two-and-a-half-year-old firm started by former GVK in-houser Ramesh Vaidyanathan, has hired its third partner with ex-BG in-house counsel Smriti Subramanian, as the firm hopes to spread its footprint beyond Mumbai.

In today’s edition of Mint: The Indian lawyers’ pie may be large but taking the first nibble is often the hardest part.

In today’s edition of Mint: “Today our biggest problem is not foreign firms, it is people working at one-tenth the price that we work at,” said Cyril Shroff, the Mumbai managing partner of Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., in an interview in early 2012. “You are constantly being pulled down in price.”

News in brief: Former Luthra & Luthra Delhi indirect tax associate and NLU Jodhpur 2008 grad Sameer Jain starts up a litigation and tax advisory practice Pamasis Law with his brother, former Fox Mandal Bangalore litigation associate and Lucknow university 2006 grad Sidhharth Jain, this August, ...

25 year-old in-house lawyer and ILS Pune grad Pallavi Purkayastha found murdered in her Mumbai flat, stabbed and with her throat slit. Her body was discovered by her live-in boyfriend, an associate at JSA [ PTI ] Litigation start-up: Former Luthra & Luthra Delhi indirect tax associate and NLU J...

Exclusive: Infosys legal head Samuel Mani and senior Infosys legal heads Utham Chengappa and Neil Mathur have quit to start a technology-focused law firm together.

Infosys, meanwhile, is understood to be finalising the appointment of new legal heads as former in-houser Gautam Rohidekar has returned to the company.

Exclusive: Former SRGR Law Offices senior associate Akshat Pande and Videocon Group company in-houser Ankit Prakash have started up Alpha Partners in Delhi to focus on corporate and intellectual property (IP) law work.

Exclusive: Talha Salaria, co-founder and partner at Bangalore firm MMB Legal, has set up an independent firm called Lawyers at Work.

Exclusive: Ex-Amarchand Mangaldas tax head Aseem Chawla has started a tax, business and corporate advisory law firm called MPC Legal with two co-founding partners, as the “best friend” firm of chartered accountancy (CA) firm Mohinder Puri & Co.

Exclusive: Economic Laws Practice (ELP) Mumbai indirect tax associate partner Ritesh Kanodia resigned last month after more than six years at the firm, to start up an independent tax practice of two or more partners.

Exclusive: Arindam Pal, who had left PXV Law Partners late last year with co-founding partner Rohit Das but ended up starting Augustus Law Chambers in Kolkata independently, is planning to aggressively expand the six-lawyer firm to other cities.

Exclusive: Barely one-year-old start-up Verus Advocates will convert to equity partnership tomorrow with Bharucha & Partners corporate senior associates Dipankar Bandyopadhyay and Jay Parikh joining in Mumbai, while litigators Rishad Chowdhury and Sourav Bhagat will join in Delhi and Kolkata respectively.

Exclusive: Former AZB & Partners and HSA Advocates lawyer Souvik Ganguly, who started up Acuity Law late last year, has closed his first venture capital (VC) advisory transaction and taken on new office space in Mumbai.

Exclusive: ICICI Bank general counsel Pramod Rao is due to leave the bank by April end to enter private practice, according to sources close to the company. He will be succeeded by ICICI Ventures head of legal and compliance Sanker Parameswaran.

Three young lawyers have started up a Delhi litigation boutique called KIAA LLP (Knowledge Information Acess Advocates), one-and-a-half years after its founding partner obtained an undergraduate law degree from the law school of Amity University, Noida with two other partners who graduated half a year ago.

Four-month-old start-up Alliance Legal has advised Fourcee Infrastructure Equipments, with Economic Laws Practice (ELP), Wadia Ghandy and Amarchand Mangaldas respectively assisting the exiting, entering and continuing private equity investors Mayfield Fund, General Atlantic and India Equity Partners.

Dear Aunty & Uncle. I want to start a law firm. Please advise.

Exclusive: Kolkata-headquartered Argus Partners has hired former Amarchand senior associate Soorjya Ganguli as a managing associate with one associate to head up its new litigation practice.