L&L Partners' Senior Partner Mohit Saraf yesterday announced the retirement of the firm's Founder Rajiv Luthra and put forth his idea for the reconstitution of the corporate partnership.
In his email to the corporate partners, Saraf has mentioned that he is accepting Luthra's earlier offer to retire and withdraw from the firm. However, he has also made an allegation of "material breaches of the partnership deed" by Luthra. As per the email, Saraf has sent a notice to Luthra accepting his offer to retire and withdraw from the firm.
Saraf has now made clear his intention to reconstitute the firm by inducting salaried partners into the corporate practice as equity partners, for the Delhi firm. He is also inducting salaried partners at Mumbai into the Delhi firm.
He plans to open up 67% of the equity of the firm, and by March 2021, a lockstep model will be put in place.
He has also announced the following promotions today:
Partner Designate to Partner
Vivek Pareek
Managing Associate to Partner
Avisha Gupta
Sumithra Suresh
Avinash Subramanian
Satadru Goswami
Managing Associate to Partner Designate
Vivek Kumar Agarwal
Samridha Neupane
Senior Associate to Managing Associate
Varun Kumar
Kartikeya Dubey
Sahil Arora
Rishabh Shah
Vipin Sharma
Satyadarshi Kunal
Jitender Singh Shekhawat
Associate to Senior Associate
Debarpan Ghosh
Aditya Gupta
Anuradha Godrey
Rushab Dhandokia
Arnav Sahni
Navomi Koshy
Shreya Kundu
Gayatri Loomba
Aatmin Shah
Swetha Shankaran
Two days ago, Rajiv Luthra had inducted two equity partners - Aniket Sengupta and Harish Kumar - into the firm.
The development took place even as Saraf rejected Luthra's proposal that all partners holding equity dilute their stake in the firm.
We have been reaching out to both Rajiv Luthra and Mohit Saraf for developments on the issue. However, neither has been available for comment thus far.
Update: Rajiv Luthra sent out an email late last night
My dear All,
I am writing this message, because I have received plenty of calls and messages from many of you, expressing concern at a misguided and illegal email sent by Mohit about my so-called retirement from the Firm.
The differences I have been having with Mohit Saraf are now known to all of you. I was hoping he would behave in a mature and professional manner, but my hopes are in vain. I am not going to bother all of you with a detailed rebuttal of the false and baseless allegations made by Mohit to disrupt the smooth functioning of the Firm, however, I would like to assure all of you, that all the allegations made by Mohit are absolutely false and that there is no question of my withdrawing, nor retiring from the Firm, which I have set up with my sweat and blood.
Everything I have done in the last few months, including, but not limited to, diluting my equity, inducting new partners, proposing promotions, (all of which I have kept you all in the loop), speaks by itself, of my intentions to making our Firm inclusive.
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…
…stay home and stay safe!