diff --git a/litellm/llms/azure.py b/litellm/llms/azure.py
index 9f5b04a041..0f67869027 100644
--- a/litellm/llms/azure.py
+++ b/litellm/llms/azure.py
@@ -415,7 +415,6 @@ class AzureChatCompletion(BaseLLM):
         if client is None:
             azure_client = AzureOpenAI(**azure_client_params)
         else:
-            azure_client = client
             azure_client = client
             if api_version is not None and isinstance(azure_client._custom_query, dict):
                 # set api_version to version passed by user