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).

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.

Thanks to a dear reader, who has pointed out some interesting titbits in a recent online video interview of NLSIU Bangalore vice-chancellor (VC) Prof Sudhir Krishnaswamy, talking (a little bit) about the recent blockbuster faculty recruitments, a criticism of wider Indian legal academia and plans for NLS to become a pioneer in online legal education.

Erstwhile Luthra & Luthra (recently rebranded as L & L Partners)_managing partner _Rajiv Luthra has been appointed as member in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MA) high level committee (HLG) on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s (MCI) High ...

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has invited the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) to help it fine-tune its proposal to the Law Commission, which was called upon by the Supreme Court to take a comprehensive look at the role of the bar councils’ “failure” and “inaction” in regulating the legal profession.

Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) Sonepat and the Indiana University Center on the Global Legal Profession is hosting a very interesting panel discussion today, which I intend to live blog here.

This morning’s hotly anticipated meeting between government ministries and several non-governmental organisations, including the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) and the Bar Council of India (BCI), passed without any principled resistance by stakeholders to the allowing foreign lawyers to practice in India.

The Bar Council of Delhi’s (BCD) chairman RS Chauhan accused Luthra & Luthra litigation partner and former BCD vice chairman Vijay Sondhi of trying to obstruct the BCD from initiating disciplinary proceedings against Luthra, which Sondhi denied in a 2 June letter to Chauhan as “frivolous, bald and baseless”.

Luthra & Luthra is advising ArcelorMittal on its Rs 500 crore ($103m) stake acquisition in Mumbai-based Steel company Uttam Galva Steels.

The Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) is hoping to widen its appeal outside of its traditional centre Delhi by strengthening local metro chapters and inducting new committee members.

SILF’s Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and other regional chapters will be headed by prominent local lawyers.

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.