Analysis
Analysis
Putting together a law school conference is hard work. Increasingly law students are taking matters into their own hands and doing it, as the pay-offs for the school and students are tangible.
Analysis
Practising lawyers have largely expressed support for AZB & Partners and Justice R.V. Raveendran's shock recusal in the Ambani brothers' dispute, although several have questioned the timing and causes of the decision.
Analysis
Are you dreaming of becoming the next Zia? India is the world's only major legal market where you can still do more than just dream.
Legally India has asked more than a dozen legal entrepreneurs for their advice on how to live that dream.
"If you feel if you are not able to achieve what you want in larger firms with larger brand names, there is enough work to sustain and flourish when you set up on your own," claims Lex Counsel's co-founder Dimpy Mohanty.
Analysis
For an Indian firm, going under the wing of an international firm is not necessarily as appealing as some might suppose and could even be downright dangerous.
Analysis
Long delays in recovering fees has become an increasing a problem for law firms whose clients are caught in the credit crunch, most recently preventing FoxMandal Little in Delhi from paying some of its staff their salaries.
"Lock-up is a big issue for most firms these days in particular collections on long-overdue invoices," says Kerma Partners legal consultant Friedrich Blase in New York and adds: "It's become harder for firms to collect on the work produced."
Analysis
India’s new government could be the springboard for the country’s legal system to scale new heights.
The recent Indian elections saw a decisive win for the Congress Party, the stock markets rally, the various economic growth forecasts adjusted and the rating agencies ditching their gloomy outlook for the country (see ‘Elections’ box).
The optimism within the business community here is so heartfelt and the belief in the new government so strong, it is reminiscent of the first month or so after Barack Obama’s election victory in the US.
Nevertheless, the data for the start of the year makes for depressing reading. India, much like the rest of the world, has suffered in every major sector (see ‘Figures’ box). The country, as ever, faces incredible challenges.
But amid those challenges, even though they come with a long wish list of demands from their old but newly emboldened government, Indian lawyers are also seeing great opportunities. In India, it is business time.
Analysis
India needs to enhance its arbitration offerings and overhaul its courts’ processes to give its backlog of cases any chance of closure before the year 3000.
A trip to the neo-Gothic Bombay High Court is an entertaining experience that should be on every visiting lawyer’s travel itinerary. Once past the sandbagged machine gun emplacements outside, loosen your tie and spend a few hours wandering about open-air corridors between throngs of locals, hundreds of offices with unfathomable purposes and court rooms filled beyond bursting point.
Also spare a thought for the unfortunate litigants, who will most likely not find the experience as enjoyable.
The running joke in India goes that, if you litigate here, your sons and daughters will inherit your dispute.