Following from its corporate partnership promotions in September when six got the nod to partner, L&L Partners’ separate litigation partnership has now announced its internal promotions and probably one of the largest round to date, including five to partner in Delhi and one new partner designate.
The promotions also include 16 new managing associates (nearly doubling the size of the career rung to 35 managing associates, plus 2 in IP and 2 in tax), as well as 18 new senior associates.
Overall, this grows the firm formerly known as Luthra & Luthra to 79 partners (including the three corporate, litigation and tax advisory partnerships).
Of this, the litigation partnership has a total of 34 partners (excluding one partner designate), with another two partners in intellectual property (IP), and five in tax. The L&L litigation practice has a total of 132 fee-earners in addition to 11 fee-earners in IP and 13 in tax.
We have reached out to L&L litigation equity partner Bobby Chandhoke for further comment.
Update 12:02: Chandhoke commented: “The litigation vertical has grown tremendously over the years, so [the promotions] are a consequence of both increase in work and the time spent with the firm.”
He said that a mix of work had grown in disputes, primarily organically out of the way the firm handles corporate clients, including banks, via relationship accounts: “Basically it’s about the client that you serve and knowing the clients’ business, and the team serves the clients whether in consumer court or the Supreme Court.”
The biggest growth had primarily been in arbitration and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) work, Chandhoke said: “Litigation strategy work has increased: trying to help clients strategise what their disputes are and help them settle if possible, if commercially viable for the client keeping in mind costs, management time and the time involved in the litigation process.”
IBC work, meanwhile, has been “one of the bigger drivers in the last couple of years”, and spanned work in tribunals and the Supreme Court (much like arbitration often also involved high courts and “sometimes the Supreme Court”), he said.
“And then there’s also a lot of managing clients’ pan-India portfolios,” he added. “A client has an issue, if they want to deal with one particular firm then wherever the cases are filed, we help manage [the cases] through associate offices. People want a consolidated approach so that facts are consistently represented across jurisdictions”
5 promotions to partner (from partner designate):
- Ashish Chandra
- Saleem Hasan Ansari
- Bharat Chugh
- Divij Kumar
- Nakul Sachdeva
One promotion to partner designate (from managing associate):
- Rudresh Singh
16 new managing associates (previously senior associates):
- Arjun Nihal Singh
- Shivi Sethi
- Divye Sharma
- Shalin Arthwan
- Kartik Bajpai
- Anirudh Krishan Gandhi
- Astha Ojha
- Ashish Kumar Singh
- Anshul Sehgal
- Abhishek Goyal
- Kumar Prem Anand
- Pallavi Shali
- Ambika Pratiyush Swain
- Aakarshan Sahay
- Abhishek Kumar Singh
- Rohan Malik
18 new senior associates:
- Naman Singh Bagga
- Prerna Parashar
- Tanvi Praveen
- Neha Mehta
- Chandramauli Dwivedi
- Surabhi Sahgal
- Bhaavya Roy
- Priyanka Prasad
- Vibhor Jain
- Arpita Bishnoi
- Achal Gupta
- Aniket Ghosh
- Damandeep Singh Bhalla
- Nishtha Chaturvedi
- Ruchika Darira
- Shivangi Narang (IPR)
- Amit Panigrahi (IPR)
- Saksham Singhal (Tax)
Comments
Litigation is the only practice atmosphere that makes LL tolerable and can save LL. [...].
Or is it just a list randomly thrown together, since clearly this isn't just listing alphabetically - the way firms usually do?
And Kian, why are you not publishing this news??
Things look they are going from bad to worse for luthra, as ppl who have been with the firm for decades are leaving. Manan’s loss wiped out capital markets, Mr Vyas’s unfortunate passing has left a glaring void in finance, projects and IBC practice, Alina headed anti corruption, insurance, Defence practices for years and also was a key M&A and corporate law partner. That’s 4 practices deeply impacted in one go.
Totally against the trend. A couple of years would put the reasons to the fore.
Seems a bit farcical but then one may also argue that conferring the 'Partner' designation without having your name on the actual deed is farcical and merely a retention strategy across firms seeking to tell people that they're progressing and aren't stuck at the MA/PA same level.
Another thing with L&L and mostly all these big firms is they quickly promote the home growns, often overlooking their quality as compared to laterals who may be actually better than their own trained home grown, unless the laterals have been hired due to some good relationship with senior partners, particularly in litigation, tax, ipr and real estate. A home grown can easily become partner only in 7- 8 years if they are just average and in good books of the reporting partners. Promotion system is quite biased and not merit based.