Luthra & Luthra will hire its third lateral corporate partner this year, with Link Legal India Law Services associate partner Alok Sonker due to join in Mumbai next month.

Clarification 19:22: He will be joining as partner designate, a relatively uncommonly used designation at Luthras.

M&A, private equity and corporate commercial lawyer Sonker had joined Link Legal in April 2017 from Khaitan & Co, where he was a senior associate.

He is a 2006 Lucknow University LLB graudate, with a 2008 LLM in business law from NLSIU Bangalore, and four years at erstwhile Rajani Associates before moving to Khaitan in 2013.

We have reached out to Luthra, Link Legal and Sonker for comment.

In January we had reported that Trilegal private equity and M&A counsel Vishwanath Pratap Singh would join the firm in Delhi, and only last month we had reported that Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas corporate partner Jay Parikh would be joining the firm.

Considering Luthra has had less visibility than its rivals in the corporate space and league tables, that is good news for the firm.

Update 19:21: Since publication, Luthra managing partner Rajiv Luthra gave the following statement to Bar & Bench:

Alok will be joining the firm’s Mumbai office as a Partner Designate in the Corporate M&A and Private Equity practice. [...]

Our Mumbai office, which has seen exponential growth over the years, recently expanded its operations by taking on additional space. [...]

We continue to pursue our growth ambitions; this is an example of how collaboration and advancement are at the heart of L&L’s strategy, demonstrating our vision of structured growth from strength to strength.

There are many new and exciting developments in the pipeline.