L&L Partners
Sole law firm candidate and Luthra & Luthra partner Vijay Sondhi has won a seat on the Delhi Bar Council in 22nd place out of 25 candidates with almost 640 votes.
Luthra & Luthra billings will have seen a dent on Wednesday as a legion of the firm's lawyers patrolled the Delhi High Court during the Delhi Bar Council elections garnering last-minute support for their candidate Vijay Sondhi (pictured).
Contesting lawyers, commuters and litigants will also now breathe a sigh of relief with the close of polling on Wednesday.
The Delhi Bar Council elections reportedly led to severe traffic congestions and adjournments in and around the courts on Tuesday and Wednesday, as voter turnout spiked by 50 per cent compared to the 13,500 who voted five years ago.
Picking up the new voters was therefore the prime directive for the 129 candidates, of whom only 25 will make it onto the executive of the Delhi Bar Council.
Luthra & Luthra litigation partner Vijay Sondhi - as a first time candidate and as the only law firmite standing in Delhi - will have been eying the new voters particularly.
He said on Wednesday: "I am relaxed now, but the elections are not over and done with… The counting process starts tomorrow [3 December] and it is a round-the-clock process which lasts a 4-5 days."
Hoping to win, Sondhi noted: "I am positive, all the law firms wanted their legal representative. SILF [Society of Indian Law Firms] had passed a resolution selecting me as an official candidate. I enjoyed the support of both law firms and lawyers that have been litigating with me for 20 years now. Each and every one of them has been a pillar of support for me."
However, privately several Delhi lawyers were doubtful that the election would swing in Sondhi's favour, despite reporting a large number of Luthra lawyers on site and spotting several law firm lawyers.
Sondhi remained optimistic. "All my friends and well-wishers worked tirelessly and the last few weeks were especially hectic.
"We're not politicians so we had to work at the ground level. Small things were missing like we didin't have any presence outside the court like other candidates had put up their tents, desks, tables and chairs. At 9:15 we sent some people to arrange all of that."
Sondhi added: "We want our professional bodies to be run by professionals, professional practising lawyers not by politicians."
However, he said that the elections were a good learning experience despite facing procedural difficulties.
One law firm associate said that the election was smoothly organised and that voting queues were only around 20 minutes in the morning.
Sondhi had expressed fears before the election that long queues would turn law firm voters off. Results of our poll too suggested that a large number of law firmites were apathetic about the elections and would not bother to vote.
The first phase of election registered 11,800 votes in the Delhi High Court on 1 December and 9,000 lawyers in Tis Hazari on 2 December totalling 20,800 out of 41,400 lawyers who were entitled to vote.
The Bar Council of India is a statutory body which consists of elected members from various state bar councils.
The Bar Council of Delhi's current chairman, Ved Prakash Sharma told Legally India that he was satisfied with the way elections were conducted and noted: "It would have not been possible without the support and supervision of the returning officer, retired justice S K Mahajan, who was also assisted by three member team of advocates Sanjay Jain, Maninder Singh and vice president of Delhi High Court Bar Association, Kirti Uppal."
Sharma added: "100 staff members from the High Court, 20 people from the election commissioners office and 50 advocates helped in organising the elections."
"We will continue our agenda of ensuring the welfare of lawyers through measures like providing group insurance and medical facilities over and above working towards the reforming the system."
He added that election result would not be out before the end of next week.
The 25 elected members will then internally elect a chairman, vice-chairman and secretary.
ALMT Legal partner Hitesh Jain, meanwhile, is still conducting his campaign for the Maharashtra & Goa Bar Council elections, with polling to be held on 7 January 2010.
He is campaigning especially in his place of work Mumbai, his hometown Pune and the outlying areas, taking off several days a week from his partnership duties to hit the road.
The Delhi offices of Amarchand Mangaldas and Luthra & Luthra have advised Dish TV in issuing GDRs (Global Depository Receipts) worth Rs. 465 crores ($100m) to Apollo Management for an 11 per cent stake in the company.
Luthra & Luthra's and Kochhar & Co's Delhi offices have advised on the 69 per cent acquisition of NDTV Lifestyle by US company Scripps Networks Interactive for Rs 254.5 crores ($55m).
Trilegal has qualified for Delhi's Turf Twenty20 Cup for Law Firms with a perfect score after convincing wins in two games this weekend. Luthra & Luthra has also qualified by winning all its games, while Dua Associates and Kohli & Sobti qualify with two wins each alongside four other law firm teams.
Luthra & Luthra and Dua Associates are dead certs to qualify for the quarter finals in Delhi's Twenty20 Cup for Law Firms after topping each of their respective pools though for six other teams anything is still possible.
J Sagar Associates (JSA) and Luthra & Luthra co-ordinated the Rs 62.2 crore ($13.5m) cash and equity acquisition of DLF-owned DT Cinemas chain by entertainment chain PVR.
Many law firm lawyers complain that the Bar Council does not represent their interests.
Now Luthra & Luthra partner Vijay Sondhi is running for the Delhi Bar Council elections on a ticket of representing law firms and their lawyers.
But are any law firmites going to rock the vote?
Luthra & Luthra has leased a new floor in its existing Delhi building, moving its corporate team of 60 heads into the 7,000 square-foot-area last week.
Luthra & Luthra, AZB & Partners and S&R Associates have pushed up the IPO league tables this October, as J Sagar Associates (JSA) and capital markets specialist firm JurisPrudent Consulting Partners make their entry into the rankings.
Luthra & Luthra has closed two project finance deals out of Delhi and Mumbai this week, acting on the Rs 1,497 crores ($325m) Gujarat road development project and the Rs 4,000 crore ($850m) syndicated term loan for Cairn India to develop oil fields.
Legally India research has revealed Amarchand Mangaldas as the top IPO dealmaker of this financial year so far, while Khaitan & Co and Luthra & Luthra are in close contest for the runner-up spot. International and domestic firms are competing in a tightly bunched mid-field of the ranking.
For the first time this year, Desai & Diwanji and Khaitan & Co are leading the third quarter Indian M&A rankings both by value and volume of deals, pushing Amarchand Mangaldas two places down mergermarket's value league table compared to three months ago.
Amarchand Mangaldas has acted on 70 per cent of qualified institutional placements (QIPs) in the first half of this financial year, with international firms, AZB & Partners, J Sagar Associates (JSA), Luthra & Luthra, S & R Associates and Crawford Bayley mopping up the rest.
A senior associate has rejoined Lall & Sethi Advocates as partner after a two-year stint at Luthra & Luthra.
Bangalore headquartered Universal Legal has hired a Luthra & Luthra senior associate as a Delhi partner while the firm prepares to open in Mumbai as a precursor to becoming a fully national firm.
Amarchand Mangaldas, AZB & Partners and Luthra & Luthra have benefited the most from the dash to hit the markets by month-end, as 16 companies filed draft initial public offering (IPO) prospectuses in the last two weeks.
Luthra & Luthra has made offers to five further students from National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore after what is likely to be its last campus recruitment visit for the year.
Luthra & Luthra has hired FoxMandal Little corporate partner Vineet Aneja in Delhi.
Luthra & Luthra is continuing its run of on-campus hires after visiting NUJS Kolkata and making further offers to NALSAR Hyderabad students, with the firm set to visit and recruit from NLSIU Bangalore next week.