Luthra on expansion mode aims for 300-lawyer mark in 2010

With a focused growth agenda, Luthra & Luthra is looking at strengthening their presence in Bangalore and Mumbai and reinforcing their present office in Delhi. Luthra's Senior Partner, Mohit Saraf speaks to Bar & Bench.

This new year, the Delhi headquartered Luthra & Luthra, is moving from strength to strength. Forging ahead with a focused growth agenda, Luthra is also looking at strengthening their presence in Bangalore and Mumbai, apart from expanding their present office in Delhi.

Mohit Saraf, Luthra's Delhi partner confirmed expansion plans for their Delhi office. Speaking to Bar & Bench, he said, "We intend to take the entire IX floor in our Barakhamba road office."

Evidently, expansion plans is not restricted to office space. Luthra has been constantly hiring and has traditionally been aggressive in its hunt for talent. "Currently we are 180-lawyer strong. Within the 12-15 months, we are looking to have atleast 300 lawyers across the country," says Saraf.

He confirmed that Luthra is looking to expand their Bangalore and Mumbai offices as well. "We are in the middle of negotiations to double the size of our Mumbai offices." With the economy on an upswing, work is evidently pouring in for Luthra's team in Mumbai. Rajiv Luthra, earlier speaking to Bar & Bench had said that Manan Lahoty's promotion to a partner in Mumbai would strengthen their Mumbai resources.

Luthra had, in November last year, acquired more office space to accommodate their lateral hires. This further acquisition of 9,000 square feet for their Delhi office in less than 4 months is only indicative of Luthra's hunt for quality lawyers.

However, cities such as Chennai and Hyderabad are at a Tier-II level on Luthra's radar. "We are not looking to move into smaller cities as of now," he says. "We are a predominantly capital markets and M&A firm, and there is not enough work for us in those cities," he says adding that they are not keen on doing the volume-based lower-end work which forms a predominant part of the corporate practice in other cities.

Now that the markets are looking up, it is only a matter of time for the entry level salaries to start looking up again. More importantly, Bangalore which has seen relatively slow, yet steady growth, might just see a surge. There are other Delhi-based based firms which are looking at Bangalore as a base to step into South Indian market. Watch out for this space.