Linklaters expands India group seats in Singapore

Linklaters is hiking the number of trainee secondments in its Singapore office in a bid to boost its India group.

The first India group trainee was posted to the magic circle firms Singapore office in March and is focusing on corporate work. The firms next seat rotation in September will see a second trainee slot open in the Singapore India group, with this trainee expected to focus on banking and finance.

Linklaters Hong Kong office also took on its first India group trainee, who is concentrating on capital markets, in March.

Linklaters India group head Sandeep Katwala said: India is an important area for us, and we are developing that. We want our trainees to get familiar with the type of work involved.

Linklaters established the firm's India group in 2000 and operates it from the far east as Indian legislation prohibits foreign firms from having offices in the jurisdiction.

Katwala, who has been based in Hong Kong since last year, said there has been a good response to the new positions, and added that there was also one London-based trainee slot available in the India group.

The move comes after Linklaters announced earlier this month that a second India-group partner would move to Singapore.

London-based partner Arun Balasubramanian relocate to Singapore at the end of August. Capital markets specialist Balasubramanian will join banking and finance specialist Narayan Iyer, who moved to Singapore earlier this year.

Last year Linklaters took on a total of 132 trainees and posted four in Singapore and seven in Hong Kong to cover a range of practice areas including corporate, capital markets, banking and projects.