AZB & Partners has poached Luthra & Luthra M&A and corporate Delhi partner Aparna Mittal, as first reported by Bar & Bench.

AZB Delhi managing partner Ajay Bahl confirmed her joining to Legally India.

Mittal had been at Luthra since graduating from NLSIU Bangalore in 2005, climbing the ranks to senior associate in 2008, to managing associate in 2010 and partner in 2012 .

Luthra’s corporate practice has seen a number of departures in recent years, with M&A partner Sudipta Routh joining ex-Khaitan & Co and ex-AZB partner Vaishali Sharma nearly a year ago.

Private equity partner Nivedita Tiwari left to join MNK Law Offices, as it was called, later joining Platinum Partners.

In April 2014, Mumbai home-grown 2005-graduate corporate partner Shishir Vayttaden left Luthra to join what is now Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

Luthra had hired Nishith Desai Associates’ Shinoj Koshy as a corporate partner in April 2015.

Luthra was ranked sixth in mergermarket’s 2015 M&A league tables by value, coming in at only 10th place by volume or the number of deals done.

The firm had done 15 deals that year, according to the ranking, worth $3.2bn.

That’s nearly a fifth the deals of top-ranked AZB’s 73, and less than a third of AZB’s $10.4bn deal value.

Luthra managing partner Rajiv Luthra had not responded to a message seeking comment at the time of publication.