L&L Partners co-founder and former senior partner Mohit Saraf, who had won a Rs 77 crore-value settlement in a protracted arbitration and Delhi high court dispute and separation with fellow co-founder Rajiv Luthra, will announce the setting up of his own rival firm today, we understand according to multiple market sources.

On 9 December 2020, the Delhi high court reserved its judgment in the saga of the acrimonious split between the co-founders of L&L Partners, Rajiv Luthra (often referred to as RKL) and Mohit Saraf (referred to as MS in court filings).

Day 2 in Delhi HC 12 November 2020, 15:38 : Day 2 in Saraf’s submissions have just started. Bar & Bench is live tweeting the hearing. 17:12 : After reiterating many of the arguments already made by Saraf in internal emails, his counsel Parag Tripathi concludes, according to B&B : To sum up...

The turnover at L&L Partners’ corporate partnership (excluding the separate litigation and other partnerships) had increased by 12% between the 2018-19 and the 2019-20 financial years, revealed court filings by senior partner Mohit Saraf in the Delhi high court dispute with managing partner Rajiv Luthra.

19:27: Apologies for the slight delay in updates. The order is out and has told the parties to mediate with Sriram Panchu tomorrow (Saturday 17 October) or by Sunday (18 October) at the latest, but without granting any stay orders to Saraf (which puts him in the position where he is locked out of his firm email and Luthra has notified all clients that they can’t work with him, even on ongoing matters).

L&L Partners senior partner Mohit Saraf has accused managing partner Rajiv Luthra of “misconduct and subterfuge”, “malafide actions” and breaching “fiduciary duties”, in his response to a public 24 hour deadline sent by Luthra in an email on Sunday evening.

The managing partner and 66.6% majority equity holder at L&L Partners, Rajiv Luthra, has made an offer to the firm that he would be willing to dilute his equity unilaterally and without the agreement or dilution of 33.4% co-partner Mohit Saraf under a 1999 deed, if the latter does not respond by 6pm today.

A fundamental rift has opened up at L&L Partners over how its long-held promoter equity should be opened up and distributed to other partners in the firm.

Luthra & Luthra senior partner Mohit Saraf, who was one of the Indian law firm promoters requesting the commerce ministry in liberalisation negotiations to prevent foreign firms from hiring Indian lawyers, said in an interview with Asia Legal Business that if foreign firms open in India, they would only be with a “very small office”.

At a smaller meeting called by the commerce ministry on 1 September with legal industry stakeholders, including Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf), the Indian National Bar Association (INBA) and Bar Association of India (BAOI), the three Silf members present reiterated their position that foreign law firms, if they were to enter India, shouldn’t be allowed to hire Indian lawyers.

The commerce and law ministries are unequivocally in favour of opening up the legal sector to foreign lawyers as soon as possible, reveal the full minutes of the July meeting between ministries and lawyers, though the details of how this will be done remain uncertain.

After it announced a strategy revamp six months ago, Luthra & Luthra transactional billings in the corporate transactional division have shot up by 36 per cent.

Luthra & Luthra has promoted two M&A and private equity lawyers – Damini Bhalla and Amit Shetye – to its partnership, as the firm has widened its executive committee and management outlined a strategic vision to ditch lower margin work and eschew big headcounts.

Luthra & Luthra has made offers to five further students from National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore after what is likely to be its last campus recruitment visit for the year.

Luthra & Luthra has hired an Amarchand Mangaldas senior associate, as targeting expansion in Bangalore. The firm also paid out bonuses last week and increased base salaries earlier this year but it has delayed its announced lockstep conversion process until the end of the year.

Luthra & Luthra partners have agreed to completely overhaul their management and partnership structure, which will see up to six current salaried partners enter the newly opened equity on a lockstep system.