Luthra & Luthra partner Nivedita Tiwari quit last month to join MNK Law Offices, as partners Dr Shweta Hingorani and Moushami Joshi are also set to leave the firm for personal reasons.
Tiwari has joined MNK, which was set up in 1996, as an M&A and private equity partner. The firm was ranked sixth in the 2013 first quarter mergermarket M&A league table by volume with three deals worth $59m.
She commented: “MNK is a place where I can fulfil my career aspirations by not only continuing to lead challenging M&A and PE deals but also helping shape and direct the future course of the practice.”
Tiwari was promoted to Luthra’s partnership in 2011 after joining in 2005 from AZB & Partners. She is a 2003 graduate of University of Delhi’s law faculty.
She will be MNK’s fifth partner, alongside four NLSIU Bangalore alumni – former AZB & Partners partner Probal Bhaduri, former KSB Partners co-founding partner and GE Commercial Finance general counsel Srinivas Kilambi, litigator Anuradha Mukherjee, and former Arthur Andersen tax advisor Gyanendra Kumar.
Unrelated to Tiwari’s move, two other Delhi partners are also leaving Luthra.
Moushami Joshi to Pillsbury
Joshi, who had been an international trade partner at Luthra since 2010, will be moving to the US for personal reasons in the coming months where she will join US law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman as an of counsel.
She is qualified to practice in New York and holds an LLM in international trade from Washington University Law School, and a 2001-LLB from NLSIU Bangalore.
She told Legally India that she would likely continue working closely with Luthra in future, which had a close and long-standing relationship with Pillsbury.
Shweta Hingorami: exploring non-corporate
Hingorani, meanwhile, said that while Luthra had been a great experience and “like a home” to her, she would be taking some time out from corporate law to focus on other areas of law. “I have been practicing corporate law for more than a decade now and after having worked practically 24x7 all these years, I have decided to take time off to explore certain other interests, particularly writing on legal and governance-related issues.”
“My interests are quite varied and I dabbled in different things prior to joining the firm. I did my masters in international relations and my PhD in German constitutional law in the UK, trained with the European Commission and undertook policy research for the Canadian Government, amongst others,” she added.
She was promoted to the firm’s partnership in 2008 - the same year as litigation partner Ajit Warrier who joined Amarchand Mangaldas in June.
Luthra senior partner Mohit Saraf declined to comment on individual leavers’ circumstances, but said: “We are doing a lot of internal restructuring and rethinking. We want to take firm to a different level.” [Clarification: Saraf has clarified that the restructuring and the three departures are completely unrelated]
The firm is due to announce its long-awaited partnership promotions later this evening (Saturday, 3 August).
Comments
KSB Partners is being wound up. No idea what the other partners' plans are or what will happen to Lexplosion.
Luthra has lost some very good people over the past one year. Sad to see a firm of such standing and repute losing so many reputable people in such a short span of time.
Big Loss.
Luthra used to be a very different kind of firm in the early 2000s, but it started losing that "good culture" by implementing certain poor and unpalatable policies. I think the management was content to rest on its old laurels, popularity and poachings. They could not keep up with the changing times and also failed to understand that policies that are detrimental to lawyers at any particular level will be regarded as oppressive by lawyers at every level. Those poor policies are now bearing fruit. It may not be easy to replace the star partners who were "lost" recently given the loss of "good culture" reputation.
You structure internally by losing good fee earners- that's the new LL outlook.
Rajiv needs to rethink his business plan.
Sad!
Is it ever involuntary?
[quote name="Insider"][...] As for internal restructuring, yes, its on - and Mr. Luthra is very much back in action and leading it.[/quote]
Back? Was he missing during the storms?
unlike much 'awaited and debated' lock step- before their is more attrition.
unlike much 'awaited and debated' lock step- before their is more attrition.[/quote]
..BEFORE there is more attrition? The gates have already opened.
Excellent on M&A and PE deals and could single handedly drive the transaction through.
I would like to discuss some points with you regarding Luthra. But I don't want to discuss them here. Can you please contact me on
. I am waiting for your message.
Thanks
As a part of the LL team, I'm writing only to stand up for these 3. It's unfair to say things such as in the comment above. There are other valuable middle to senior members across teams who've left in recent times. Certainly not "deadwood".
General sentiment around the firm now is that it's time to move on unless something changes soon for the better which isn't just an eye wash.
Also your comment is very personal- so Its quite clear you didn't get along with any of these individuals.
Kian - I trust you will exercise your editorial discretion in controlling such comments.
I believe Moushami Joshi was promoted to partnership in 2010 and not in 2006 as mentioned in the article. Please have a look into it. thanks
did they make you write this?
did they make you write this?[/quote]
Its clear that the markets are down - too many jobless lawyers. .
Sadly LI has just become a forum for mud slinging and Kian lets talk sometime (i will get in touch with you) - perhaps you need to analyse the role of moderation to keep out sexist, base, and utterly personal remarks that only encourage slandering. hope u are mature enough to understand that the merit of any news website (and journalism) is evidenced by the quality and ethics and professionalism and not by the number of hits the website gets.
Though, I thought it did indirectly raise an interesting point of how law firms often exert influence on their ex partners and associates from beyond the grave so to speak: i.e., the lengths partners often have to go through to maintain good relationships with their previous firms, even if they were treated terribly, for fear of retribution and the influence their former bosses wield in the industry.
I'm not saying it's the case here, but I've spoken to enough exiting partners in my time to be aware of the dynamic...
Furthermore, sometimes it's hard to distinguish trolling, legitimate humour and insightful commentary, and we'd rather not have to get on that slippery censorship slope.
Rather than feeding this potential troll with outrage, for example (which, if they were in fact a troll, is what they would have been delighted by), I was thinking that there was an interesting nugget in the comment, along a similar line as I explained above.
Just the fact that someone would ask, even as a joke, of an ex-partner whether your former boss forced you to write something nice a month after you left, is somewhat insightful on the Indian law firm context, even if not applicable in this case. Ask yourself whether someone would have written this in New York or London? And would anyone actually have taken such a comment seriously there?
I have found that the best way to deal with trolls is to either ignore them, or to fight them with reason and kindness (the 'hug a troll' principle).
Best wishes,
Kian
LI moderates certain comments if they are abusive, sexist, etc. What more do you want?
"...how law firms often exert influence on their ex partners and associates from beyond the grave so to speak: i.e., the lengths partners often have to go through to maintain good relationships with their previous firms, even if they were treated terribly, for fear of retribution and the influence their former bosses wield in the industry. "
In this case, I think it's a professional photo, unless you believe that a professional picture needs to be boring.
As for sexist commenting, we actually try moderate every single reference to a person's appearance (positive or negative, and including on men), and there are often quite a few sometimes.
How is it "gender sensitive" to publish a photo of a male lawyer instead or for that matter female lawyer in a formal outfit? Praja comment is sexist. Funny that words used are feminist vocabulary. No wonder they don't make any sense at all.
Kian I think praja's comment is worse than the troll's, pls throw it out.
Kian I think praja's comment is worse than the troll's, pls throw it out.[/quote]
Kian: point about you sourcing the photograph from Linkedin or the firm is well taken. Having said that when you or Feminist talk about 'boring' or 'ugly' photo, I believe you and Feminist are implying that being 'boring and ugly' is not an option. Poor me.
Coming back to the point of perception, a fantastic comment on short skirts and rape does not address the point I made. Several media studies and feminist studies have indicated that use of certain language (such as, supermom) and images while reporting about the accomplishments of women often leads to blurring of focus from their achievement and perpetuates a sub-culture of seeing women in a non gender-neutral perspective. An OUP book on gender studies (I can't recall the exact name) and a compendium of essays by Cambridge University Press come to my mind. UNESCO also came out with a guide on gender sensitive reporting.
One small point - I never talked about 'ugly' photos, and I used 'boring' only in the context of the photo you mentioned of Mohit Saraf, suited, booted and sitting down, in traditional lawyer profile photo pose.
In any case, I take your point on sensitivity in reporting but would like to think we're doing ok on that front, both in terms of photos, and language. We'd obviously never use the term super-mom, and as far as I know we've also always managed to avoid words like 'ladies', 'lady-lawyer', 'girls', etc about professionals, which I personally find a little derogatory too, though some clearly disagree.
Best wishes,
Kian
[quote name="Anonymous"]Pedigree at MNK appears to be great. 4 Partners from National Law School and one Partner who is ex Luthra and AZB. Looks like a lot is going in favor of MNK. Way to go MNK![/quote]