Allen & Overy (A&O) and Indian best friend firm Trilegal have scooped the mandated lead arranger mandate on the closing Bharti Airtel – Zain $9bn merger, alongside AZB & Partners, Herbert Smith and Linklaters.

Trilegal has promoted the second woman to its partnership, as Bangalore corporate senior associate Kosturi Ghosh has swelled the senior ranks to 16.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Trilegal have represented Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) and Heineken International respectively on brokering the agreement to allow United Breweries (UB) to make Heineken brand beer in India.

Trilegal has qualified for Delhi’s Turf Twenty20 Cup for Law Firms with a perfect score after convincing wins in two games this weekend. Luthra & Luthra has also qualified by winning all its games, while Dua Associates and Kohli & Sobti qualify with two wins each alongside four other law firm teams.

Trilegal will be the second law firm to move into Lower Parel’s One Indiabulls Centre in November, joining Khaitan & Co in the same Mumbai office block. Trilegal is also moving into its long-planned new office in Delhi this month and preparing for its move in Bangalore.

Amarchand Mangaldas has acted on 70 per cent of qualified institutional placements (QIPs) in the first half of this financial year, with international firms, AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates and Crawford Bayley mopping up the rest.

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

Trilegal has recruited seven final-year students from National Law University (NLU) Jodhpur, almost filling up its fresher quota for the year.

Covington & Burling and Trilegal have co-operated on the IPO of Indian Energy on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), which is only the fourth successful listing this year on the London Stock Exchange-owned smaller market.

Trilegal co-founding partner Anand Prasad is candid about the fact that the firm has lacked significant expertise in capital markets but the firm may be on a path to plugging that hole - and others.

AZB, DSK and Trilegal have done well in Asia Pacific private equity deal rankings despite heavily depressed values and volumes this year.

Trilegal has hired a capital markets partner from its best friend Allen & Overy (A&O), to join the firm’s Mumbai office and strengthen the referral relationship.

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.

It is hard to establish to what scale Indian law firms have laid off associates during the down-turn.

One thing is clear though: the domestic war for talent has begun to heat up again, especially as foreign firms have lost buying power after a tough year of retrenchments and falling profits.

Trilegal has recruited final year law students from a National Law School almost six months earlier than last year in an attempt to beat the fierce competition for top law school talent.

Despite meagre pickings, Desai & Diwanji, Khaitan & Co, AZB & Partners and Amarchand Mangaldas have topped an M&A league table, together advising on 30 Indian deals worth a total of $9.4bn in the last six months.

Trilegal has promoted four partners, raised its associate base salaries by 20 to 30 per cent and paid out unprecedented bonuses this year.