L&L Partners has announced the promotion of five of its lawyers in its corporate partnership, a hint of business as usual against the continuing backdrop of the bitter dispute between the two sole equity partners over the future of the firm.

Senior partner Mohit Saraf had made the announcement in an email to the firm yesterday evening (12 October), noting that managing partner Rajiv Luthra had been responsible for the delay (besides several other points, such as claiming the resignation of the latter).

Update 02:00: Luthra had denied in a later email that he had been responsible for the delay, stating:

Apropos the promotions, I had confirmed Partners’ recommendations and sought confirmation from the Corporate Partners on Thursday, October 8, 2020, and had informed them that I intend to make the promotion announcements today. Additionally, on Saturday, October 10, 2020, I had informed the Corporate Partners group about the induction of two equity partners - Mr. Aniket Sengupta and Mr. Harish Kumar...

...attached is the list of all the promotees...many congratulations to all of you - this promotion is entirely well deserved for each one of you, endorsed by each one of your partners, as well. Please also join me in congratulating Aniket Sengupta and Harish and welcoming them on board.

I continue to remain committed to taking our Firm to greater heights.

The following five lawyers been promoted to non-equity partner at the firm:

• partner designate Vivek Pareek,
• managing associate Avinash Subramanian,
• managing associate Avisha Gupta,
• managing associate Sumithra Suresh, and
• managing associate Satadru Goswami.

Luthra's two new (possible) equity partners

The promotions are somewhat unusual, in that Rajiv Luthra had announced on 10 October that he had promoted two of the firm’s partners - Delhi-based Harish Kumar and Aniket Sengupta - to equity partnership.

Luthra’s email did not include details on what exactly such an equity partnership would look like, and we have not been able to confirm whether equity has actually been disbursed to Kumar and Sengupta.

As such, it is currently unclear on whether the equity promotions have taken effect, since fellow equity partner Saraf has contested whether Luthra could do so without his consent.

Luthra had stated that new equity partner applicants should have a minimum of 16 years “standing at the bar”, though he had added “anyone who does not meet the criteria but feels they have compelling credentials, to also receive equity at this stage may also write to me stating clearly the reasons asap”.

Kumar, a corporate and M&A lawyer, seems to have been able to make the case without the 16-year requirement: he had worked as a company secretary for around 10 years until around 2011, before obtaining his law degree from Delhi University, joining what-was-then Amarchand Mangaldas. This was followed by DMD Advocates and moving to Link Legal India Law Services as a partner, before joining to L&L in 2018 as a partner designate, where he made (salaried) partner in April 2019.

Sengupta, however, would have cleared the post-qualification experience (PQE) hurdle outright: he is a 2000 NLSIU Bangalore graduate who had worked at Luthra since 2003, making (salaried) partner there in 2008. He specialises in banking and finance.

Update 03:18: Associate promotions

Further promotions at L&L in the associate ranks:

Managing Associate to Partner Designate

1 Vivek Kumar Agarwal

2 Samridha Neupane

Senior Associate to Managing Associate

1 Varun Kumar

2 Kartikeya Dubey

3 Sahil Arora

4 Rishabh Shah

5 Vipin Sharma

6 Satyadarshi Kunal

7 Jitender Singh Shekhawat

Associate to Senior Associate

1 Debarpan Ghosh

2 Aditya Gupta

3 Anuradha Godrey

4 Rushab Dhandokia

5 Arnav Sahni

6 Navomi Koshy

7 Shreya Kundu

8 Gayatri Loomba

9 Aatmin Shah

10 Swetha Shankaran

IPR

Associate to Senior Associate

1 Akriti Shashni