Indian firm Luthra & Luthra has appointed expatriate Ashwin Sapra as group head of its intellectual property and pharmaceutical practice team.

Sapra, who joins the firm from an in-house position at Ascend Therapeutics, a Washington, D.C-based specialty pharmaceutical company, has wide-ranging expertise in the IP and pharmaceutical sectors. In his previous position Sapra was responsible for managing the company’s IP and corporate compliance portfolios and played a lead role in patent prosecution and litigation.

Sapra’s move makes him the eighth lawyer that Luthra & Luthra has enticed back to India over the past twelve months. A number of alumni have returned to the firm, including Piyush Misra from Allen & Overy, Manan Lahoty from Shearman & Sterling, Damini Bhalla from Clifford Chance, Ravisekhar Nair from Blake Dawson, and Ajay Sondhi from White & Case.

There is more to come, according to sources close to ALB who note that as the country edges closer to legal sector liberalisation, more local lawyers will be looking to return to their homeland. Whether this development will see them rejoining domestic law firms or becoming ‘men-on-the-ground’ for international law firms remains to be seen.

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