Sudipta Routh, Senior Associate at Clifford Chance has joined the partnership at the Mumbai office of Luthra & Luthra. An alumnus of National Law School of India University started his career as the manager-legal at ICI India, now AzkoNobel NV. He was also Trilegal’s first lateral hire at the partner level and was the first partner outside of the founding partners. After a stint spanning a little under five years with Trilegal, he took a sabbatical to study International Banking & Finance at University of London’s, Queen Mary College.

After having worked with Clifford Chance’s London office as a part of their Banking & Finance practice and as a part of their earliest India practice group, he has now moved back to Mumbai to head Luthra's Private Equity and M&A practice.

Speaking to Bar & Bench, Routh gave the lowdown on his return to India from Clifford Chance. “When the rececssion hit, Europe and America were hit particularly hard. I was doing a lot of cross border work and exotic deals, and it was not the best time to be in Banking & Finance. The European market is still wobbly,” he said.

“Given the size of the clientele, and with the weight of the Delhi partners behind us, we can easily grow between 20 to 25 percent” said Routh commenting about the magnitude of work available for the Mumbai office. “We already have 4-5 senior level lawyers in the team. We are looking at doubling that number in the next 6-9 months.”

Speaking to Bar & Bench earlier, Mohit Saraf had revealed their grand plans for their Mumbai offices. It appears that Routh’s hire is in line with the plans he had revealed last year.

The India and England qualified lawyer is considered to be a specialist in cross border finance, foreign investments, M&A, restructuring and private equity.