Not an actual split. It has been challenging times forNDA ever since there was data breach at the firm and they brought the Anuradha Vs Bajrangi suit. There have been several exits because all this has hit the firm badly. There was no chance of a split because NDA has never been a partnership but several associates have left to join firms of NDA alumns - Rajaram, Bombay Law Chambers and Anagram. Other than these three firms a few have gone to trilegal and Touchstone (following Ruchir Sinha), and other T1 firms. A few have joined in house teams.
Why are you shocked at NDA having 72 lawyers? This count is dated by a few months and there have been more exits since then. Even one of the partners (Vivek Kathpalia) moved out, so that partner count has gone down since the data for this ranking was collected. NDA did hire 2-3 folks in Hyderabad, but my sense is that the number of lawyers is closer to 65 currently. They have a list on their website which indicates about 70 firm members but not all of them are lawyers. NDA is fast becoming what NMD has always bragged about - a nano firm! Don't be surprised if they drop off the top 30 next year.
OP you are making it sound as if it is some deal based or work based ranking! This is just headcount ranking. And one rank here and there doesn't mean Luthra is out of the game. It is OG Big 6 and current Big 7 and it will bounce back given its sizeable presence in Delhi and joining of some fresh faces in Mumbai and elsewhere. It has JUST broken up, give it some time before coming to any conclusion.
NDA has lost about 30% of its associates in the last year and a half. It is obvious that any firm that has shrunk at such a rate could not be seeing 'success'. Why would so many folks quit if firm was doing well especially during the pandemic?
This survey was done from March to August. NDA has lost some more folks after August. So things are not stronger for NDA now than when this survey was done. Sad but true.
Have been with Luthra since graduating and I must say that the firm has been declining. Manan Lahoty & team, Sameen Vyas, Sundeep Dudeja, Mohit Saraf, Vaibhav kakkar, Alina Arora, Bikash Jhawar - the firm has not been able to replace any of these departures.
And further, you need to remember that L&L total headcount of 239 is inclusive of the huge L&L litigation practice in Delhi that gets paid significantly lesser and contributes lesser billings. As of Nov 2021, the entire L&L Bombay office only has 48 lawyers, 15-20 of whom joined from Indus in the last 2 months.
Entire bangalore office has lesser than 10 lawyers. I am worried L&L is going to become a tier-2 or boutique firm fast, if it hasn't already.
Actually, I've got nothing to do with Luthra either at present or in the past. Had this been about any of the other firms, I would have made the same point. All of these portals, rankings, awards and lists are as useless as it gets in the real world.
AZB has retained it's no 1 spot from last year for max deals with only an approx 500 headcount but Shardul is not even second rank in deals even with a 870 headcount.
SAM has become the largest Indian firm by headcount.It looks like it's been hiring laterals headcount more aggressively because the headcount hire from law schools does not seem to haveincreaded so drastically.Anyone knows or can tell which teams they have been hiring in large numbers for (PQE1-3 years)?
ALB isn’t a random publication. You can’t paste their rankings and seminars all the time on your LinkedIn page if that suits you and then trash them just because it’s a piece of news you don’t like. You can’t have it both ways.
If you closely look, the ranking is just based on the number of lawyers it has. How is that a parameter for describing anyone's success? Ffs, NDA is below 20. All hate aside, it can't be that bad.
This is not a ranking. It is a fact based list.
This survey was done from March to August. NDA has lost some more folks after August. So things are not stronger for NDA now than when this survey was done. Sad but true.
Luthra was 250 lawyers in 2008 and still continues to have 240 lawyers. They have just not grown!
And further, you need to remember that L&L total headcount of 239 is inclusive of the huge L&L litigation practice in Delhi that gets paid significantly lesser and contributes lesser billings. As of Nov 2021, the entire L&L Bombay office only has 48 lawyers, 15-20 of whom joined from Indus in the last 2 months.
Entire bangalore office has lesser than 10 lawyers. I am worried L&L is going to become a tier-2 or boutique firm fast, if it hasn't already.
ALB isn’t a random publication. You can’t paste their rankings and seminars all the time on your LinkedIn page if that suits you and then trash them just because it’s a piece of news you don’t like. You can’t have it both ways.
Its official. Luthra has dropped out of the biggest 7.