Amarchand & Mangaldas, Khaitan & Co and Jones Day have advised in a US$100m private placement of equity shares in a qualified institutional placement offering by Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, one of India’s leading non-banking finance companies.

Clyde & Co has poached Ashurst’s head of aviation for Asia, Middle East and Africa Paul Jebely, to launch the Asian arm of the firm’s global aviation finance practice.

Leading intellectual property lawyer and founder of India’s oldest and most established intellectual property firm Remfry & Sagar, Dr Vidya Sagar has passed away last week at age 85.

The rivalry heats up amongst Tokyo-based international firms at the night of nights for Japan’s legal fraternity – the ALB Japan Law Awards 2011.

A huge cost leap has surfaced in the past 5-10 years for a number of jurisdictions as companies scramble to keep up with strengthening competition laws around the region, according to Baker & McKenzie special counsel Martin Commons.

The latest market activity in the Asia Pacific region for January 2011 shows a focus on capital markets issuance and M&A, with deals hitting a high of US$84.9bn in Jan 2011.

Gulf firm Al Tamimi has promoted the head of its Jordan and Iraq offices, Khaled Saqqaf and Qatar-based lawyers Stefan Jury and Hani Al Naddaf to its partnership with immediate effect.

Norton Rose Australia has ended its previous tie-up with Brigitta Rahoyoe & Partners to launch a new formal association with local Indonesian firm Susandarini & Partners.

A milestone LNG project between the world’s largest LNG buyer, Kogas; Japan’s largest trading house, Mitsubishi Corporation; and Indonesia’s largest private sector energy company, Medco Energi Internasional, marks the first-ever joint venture partnership between Korea, Japan and Indonesia on an LNG project. Hogan Lovells; Widyawan & Partners; Allen & Overy, Herbert Smith and its Indonesian ally, Hiswara, Bujamin & Tanjung (HBT), have all played roles on the deal which itself was six years the making.

Continued protests and political unrest in Manama have forced businesses and law firms to limit their operating hours as staff struggle to get to work due to road blockages in the CBD.