Tanmay Amar joins Omidyar as general counsel from Sequoia

Legal counsel at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital Tanmay Amar has put in his papers to join the Indian arm of self-styled philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network as India general counsel.

An alumnus of National Law School of India University, 33-year-old Tanmay had started his career with Delhi-headquartered law firm Luthra & Luthra Law Office. In April 2013, he joined Sequoia Capital as legal counsel.

“He was responsible for structuring investment transactions, negotiation and diligence,” said a person who has worked closely with Tanmay in the past. “He was also an effective counsel for the firm during exits from investments and related negotiations.”

Legally India first reported the development.

Email queries sent to Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Network did not elicit any response. A phone call made and a text message sent to Tanmay remained unanswered.

According to Premal Shah, founder of legal search firm FSL Search, the legal recruitment space is seeing a lot more movements compared to last year as overall activities have increased. "We are working on two big mandates for large foreign funds and hopefully will see the closing by end of December," Shah said.

A cricket enthusiast, Tanmay joins a bunch of legal executives who have switched jobs in recent months.

Last month, financial practice regulatory head of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Ipsita Dutta, put in her papers to join Morgan Stanley.

In July, Kartikeya Singh quit as deputy general counsel of Bank of America Merrill Lynch to join Altico Capital.

In May, Shagoofa Khan, senior director and legal and compliance head at IDFC Alternatives, left the firm to join Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to head its fund advisory business.

In April, Deutsche Bank’s senior legal counsel Sapna Bhawnani left the firm to join Credit Suisse in Mumbai as its joint director and co-head of legal in India.

Around the same time, Himanshu Dodeja left Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas to become general counsel at private equity major Blackstone.

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