India Unleashed: Print Issue Editorials

A major part of Legally India’s core mission has always been transparency. When we first set up in 2009, the domestic legal market was largely shrouded in secrecy and could be understood only by tapping into an arcane flow of information and rumours spread via professional networks.

“M&A is the mainstay of any small or large corporate firm’s practice,” states Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi corporate partner Amit Khansaheb, one of the InLegal 50’s top dealmakers of the financial year 2018-19. “M&A is always happening – bear or bull market – although valuations may differ, expectations may vary and people may put off plans from time to time,” he adds.

At least 17 insolvency deals under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code brought significant work to Indian law firms in our tables in the 2018-19 financial year, with deal values of $20.5bn.

A law firm is only ever as good as the collection of its partners. And (nearly) all top transactional partners will be quick to tell you that they are only as good as their team. The analysis that follows is therefore a recognition not just of individual partners’ rainmaking and execution abilities, but also a testament to leadership and teamwork from everyone involved.

The proof of most things lies in the pudding, and for a good corporate lawyer, your pudding begins and ends with the kind of work that clients entrust you with.

Equity capital markets (CM) can be a tough practice area for a law firm to manage. When the going is good and the markets are booming, it seems like there aren’t enough lawyers to handle the work; when the capital markets go to sleep, utilisation and profits plummet.

Foreign law firms too have had a bumper year in India, with the vast majority of public instructions linked to their relationships with their marquee private equity clients, which were very hot on India this year. We have ranked the top 13 firms that had at least two India mandates with deal values attached, signifying transactions with a significant India element.

To some extent it’s understandable: for years, the Indian legal profession – particularly litigation – has been dominated by men, and most of the new law firms that rose in the nineties and noughties were headed by men. The (generally) male managing partners would often be busy trying to capture market share and executing the work; worrying about whether female lawyers were given the same opportunities as the men was for many an afterthought, if that.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have been making inroads into nearly all walks of life. Much of what’s visible in the mainstream has been restricted to headline-dominating stunts such as Google’s DeepMind systems beating humans at ultra-complex board games like Go or Chess or the IBM Watson system besting champions of the TV game show Jeopardy (way back in 2011). There have been rapid improvements in self-driving car technology by several companies. And on the consumer software side, facial and photo recognition, real-time text, voice and image translation and other useful tools from the major tech giants often seem like magic, or at least eerily, almost-humanly intelligent.

No country can attract foreign trade and investment without a modicum of rule of law and stability in governance. Rule of law requires not only a set of easily understood norms and procedures, but also independent institutions where such norms are enforced without fear or favour. It is no coincidence that Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice features a trial scene: Venice’s wealth as a trading nation was built on its institutions’ ability to impartially and rigorously enforce contracts in accordance with the law. Hubs of commerce in the modern world such as London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai all boast of excellent institutions designed to resolve commercial disputes in an impartial, effective, and efficient manner.

One of the oldest jokes told by foreign law firm lawyers who often visit India begins with a question about when they think the market will liberalise. “Two years,” the answer will be. “It’s always been two years.”

I would like to congratulate Legally India for having established itself as a progressive, galvanizing force for the Indian legal fraternity, against many odds. This publication represents an incremental step in Legally India’s journey and a timely reminder of India’s economic potential. These days, I am more confident (but not complacent) that India will not simply fritter away its demographic dividend as the narrative shifts from that of a tiger caged to a tiger on the tail of a dragon.

India makes it really difficult to maintain perspective sometimes when gung-ho headlines, government statements and statistics only ever tell part of its story. Yes, at give-or-take around 7%, India’s GDP is growing faster than most other countries and this is predicted to continue increasing next year. But is this enough? And, importantly, are India’s lawyers ready to keep pace?

In this second issue of Legally India, co-published with the team at Global Legal Media, we take a closer look at the world of disputes. In what can be the most exciting (as well as the most nerve-wracking) part of the job, we examine disputes of all shapes, colours and sizes and provide Indian lawyers, foreign lawyers and multinational companies with a closer understanding of Indian dispute resolution in a global context.