L&L Partners Delhi-based real estate partner Sachit Mathur is understood to have tendered his resignation.

Mathur had been at L&L since 2006, and is a 2005 Delhi University law and commerce graduate.

He specialises in real estate work.

The L&L website’s real estate expertise page lists managing partner Rajiv Luthra, Mathur and partner Vaibhav Suri (a fellow 2005 Delhi University graduate who has been at Luthra’s since 2007).

We have reached out to Luthra and senior partner Mohit Saraf for comment earlier this week.

Mathur has declined to comment when contacted.

We have not been able to confirm his next steps, though rumours - including in LI comments - suggest that he may be going independent.

Mathur is the latest in a long string of partners to exit the firm since the start of the continuing (and continuing-to-be unresolved) dispute between co-founding partners Luthra and Saraf for control of the firm.

Most recently:

• homegrown IP partner Nirupam Lodha joined Khaitan & Co,
• homegrown partner Damini Bhalla left for Zomato, and
• S&R hired capital markets partner Jitesh Shahani.

That follows October 2020’s departure of Mumbai partner Apurva Jayant and Delhi-based homegrown partner Samarth Gupta.

As we had predicted back then:

The departure of two partners may be the start of a worst-case scenario for the firm: partners who can, may decide to leave rather than wait for the two equity partners to sort out their dispute.

If that happens en masse, it would be the beginning of an end, with much less left to fight over or to retain for either Luthra or Saraf, including potentially a much-diminished brand name.

That vicious downward spiral seems to be continuing with the number of departures steadily increasing, with particular concern being the exit of talent who had spent most of their careers at the firm.