In an interview with Insights Success, Rajiv K Luthra is the Founder and Managing Partner of L&L Partners gave some insightful answers highlighting the influences made by his company to take Luthra & Luthra Law Offices to a new level.
- Brief us about your company and what kind of solutions/services/products does your company offer at par with the current industry standards?
L&L Partners [formerly known as Luthra & Luthra Law Offices] is a leading full service law firm, with a team of over 350 Counsel, and offices at New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
In keeping with the Firm’s legacy of offering exceptional legal solutions & client advice; teams at the Firm ensure that clients receive practical, innovative & cost-effective advice in a responsive manner, while upholding the highest ethical standards. Enormous amounts of knowledge, experience & commitment, successfully help close/ resolve complex & high value transactions & disputes, with practical & creative legal solutions.
Consistently ranked and globally recognized as leaders in the field, we adopt a forward-looking approach towards the practice of law, combining both conventional practice areas & emerging sectors, setting benchmarks and the highest technical standards within the legal fraternity.
Whilst handling clients across major industry practice areas & sectors, we provide legal guidance & assistance to a wide range of domestic & international clients as well as foreign firms, adding to a multitude of global clients.
Since its inception in 1990 which coincides with India’s economic liberalization, L&L has assisted numerous multinational corporations to set up their presence in India, and navigate the complex Indian legal system.
Offering precedent-setting solutions to complex legal issues, the Firm advises on transactions and matters involving Banking & Finance; Capital Markets; Competition & Anti-trust; Corporate Commercial and Mergers & Acquisitions; Dispute Resolution (Litigation & Arbitration); Anti-Corruption & Compliance; International Trade (WTO) Laws and Policy & Advisory; Project, Infrastructure & Energy; Tax (Direct & Indirect); Real Estate & Construction; Aerospace & Defence (Procurement & Production); Insurance & Re-Insurance; Intellectual Property – Patent & Trademark; Oil & Gas; Health & Pharmaceuticals; Private Equity & Venture Capital Investments.
The Firm and its lawyers have been consistently ranked and recognised by leading legal publications across each of our practice areas. Our clients include many of the world’s leading corporations, funds, banks and financial institutions.
- During the journey towards growth, what are the challenges the company has faced?
The challenges we have faced as a Firm are far too many to enumerate. We have never perceived them as an impediment to our growth, but as lessons learnt over time enabling us to fine tune ourselves to nuances of different personalities. We, as a Firm have not had any difficulty in coming together collectively and acting as a cohesive unit working in perfect synchronization and harmony, during trying times. And in our experience, there is no tide which we are not able to sail through, when we stand united.
- Share your point of view on the current scenario of the Industry and its future.
It is our understanding that the legal profession is continuing to gain its due respect and recognition in the domestic space as well as on the global platform. Legal professionals in In-House roles are steadily becoming an important voice to ‘Promoters’, ‘Board of Directors’ and ‘Chief Executives’ alike. Legal advisory services are no longer looked upon as ‘support services’, but their importance has been acknowledged by many an industry leader, as their legal teams have helped them counter many risks and helped bring efficiencies in the organization’s overall operations, while continuing to follow the letter of Law.
Statisticians from top analytics institutions around the world are very optimistic about the Indian economy, corporate sector and capital markets. We believe the growth of the Indian legal industry is pegged to India’s growth story, for which, we too have a very positive outlook.
- Tell us something about the CEO/founder/MD of the company?
Rajiv K Luthra is the Founder and Managing Partner of L&L Partners (former Luthra and Luthra Law Offices). He has over three decades of experience as a trusted advisor to the Indian government and top domestic and international corporations, and serves on numerous corporate boards.
He has been awarded the ‘National Law Day Award’ by the Prime Minister of India, for his “… his singular contribution to the practice of corporate and commercial law in India and for being one of the country’s earliest pioneers in international transaction lawyering” and is the recipient of the ‘International Jurists Award’ by the Attorney-General and Chief Justice of the United Kingdom, for his unique contribution in the field of cross-border transactions and banking & finance law in India. At the Economic Times’ Asian Business Leaders Conclave in Kuala Lumpur, he was recognized as ‘The Most Promising Business Leader of Asia’. He has received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for his accomplishments & achievements in the International M&A sector at the 4th Annual International M&A Advisor Awards in New York. He has also been inducted in the M&A Hall of Fame, New York and has been honored as a “Legend in Indian Corporate Law” and as an “Ace Legal Eagle for Indian corporate law, specializing in tax, regulatory & compliance laws” at the Asian Business Leadership Forum Excellence Awards in Dubai.
Most recently he has been appointed by the Hon’ble Minister for Corporate Affairs, on the High Level Committee on Corporate Social Responsibility, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, shortly before which, he was also appointed as a Member of a High Level Advisory Group in the Department of Commerce by the Hon’ble Minister of Commerce & Industry to make recommendations on pursuing opportunities, addressing challenges and finding a way forward amidst emergent issues in the contemporary global trade scenario. He is the only legal expert in this esteemed group.
- What are the benefits and support your clients are getting from your company in this fastest growing competitive world?
Our vision for our relationship with a client is not myopic or limited to one transaction/mandate/case. For us each interaction with our client is an opportunity for us to build on our relationship with them. We intend to be their trusted advisor in all legal and business issues they grapple with, to extent we can. We go the extra mile in suggesting other financial advisors/business consultants as the case may be, to help them attain their desired goals. What we have developed a reputation for with our clients over the past three decades, is that we are with them each step of their journey through, what is for them – unchartered territory. We only rest, when see them through the finish line, not a moment before that.
- Kindly brief us about your strategies to tackle the competition in your sector. What steps are you taking to ensure that you continue to grow and develop?
It may come as a surprise, but we are happy to report that we do not have any strategy in place, which targets or is centered around competition. It is our Founder’s and Senior Partners belief that we must strive to act in our clients best interest and help them with advise which brings about maximum benefit while striking a balance our client and the counterparty involved. This is because no case/matter can be seen in isolation; we want to ensure that a mutually beneficial agreement and conclusion is arrived at, because as legal professionals, to us, justice and fairness is paramount. This core belief can very well be considered our Firm’s purpose and mission.
- Tell us something about your upcoming services/plans.
As a full service law firm, our advisory spans across legal practice areas and industry sectors. We intend to lay emphasis and strengthen our effort to expand our scope of services by partnering with global law firms, and domestic law firms in other jurisdictions to be able to provide services to our clients, wherever they are present or have interest.
- What are the future plans of your company? How are you/is your company contributing in making it better?
We are investing in technology to ensure that we are aligned with the advancements in systems and processes that act as enablers for better service delivery and allow us to measure our performance in an organized and efficient manner. More importantly, we continue to invest in our human capital, which we value above all else. We do this by taking on budding legal professionals in our internship program, allowing both the individual and our firm to assess whether we are a natural fit. Young professionals are assigned a mentor to help them navigate through difficulties they may face in their path of growing to be full-rounded, accomplished professionals. For our existing family, i.e. counsels at the Firm, we do our best to help them grow in their individual path of professional ascension within the Firm’s ranks. We wish to maintain cordial relations with those of our counsels who choose a different path for their career; we mean to formalize this by means of hosting events for our Alumnus, as a goodwill gesture.
