The young think-tank Research Foundation for Governance in India (RFGI) has been working hard at changing the legal and political landscape in India, recounts Legally India blogger napster.

Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramanium said in a Legally India interview that he wants to reduce the number of Indian law colleges from 913 to 175 within a year as part of an ambitious overhaul of the legal profession's regulation and education that will be announced this Thursday (15 July).

Less than one month ago a financial daily caused a stir in the cozy Delhi capital markets world after reporting that the selection of law firms in the disinvestment of Coal India Limited and Engineers India Limited (EIL) had been discriminatory, alleging political nepotism. But as so often there is more than meets the eye.

For almost six months Legally India's law bloggers have surprised, educated, entertained, assisted, exposed and stretched the minds of this site's readers beyond everyone's wildest expectations. We now look at some of the best quality legal writing and writers in that half year, in the run-up to the final month of the Rs 1.2 lakh blogging competition.

The 86-year-old senior advocate and politician Ram Jethmalani is a living legend of the criminal bar that is unlikely to ever fade quietly into the background. Despite his self-proclaimed desperation to retire he was recently instructed to co-defend former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, fought for Anil Ambani against his estranged brother in the Supreme Court and won the presidential election to the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), vowing to clean up the tainted body.

Unafraid of controversy, Jethmalani remains as outspoken as ever and Legally India talks to him about the practice of law, why he thinks that foreign law firms would benefit Indian lawyers, how a bar exam is not necessary and how the corruption, backlog of cases and decline of the legal profession are squarely the government's fault.

The entry of foreign law firms into Singapore has been a long and rocky road, littered with failed experiments and moderate successes. So what can India learn from Singapore's incremental legal market liberalisation, Legally India asked Indiana University law professor and Asia law firm expert Jayanth Krishnan.

One year ago Legally India kicked off the project of bringing independent full-time coverage to the Indian legal market. In that year Indian lawyers and law students saw more changes than ever and for the first time these were documented in real time.

Almost 900 articles, breaking news stories, features, opinions and blogs, nearly 6,000 reader comments and 1,000 forum posts shone a light on the inside workings of India Law Inc and law schools.

In that time many stories have come full circle. We look back at the top stories of the last 12 months, where they have gone and where they might go, starting off with foreign firms, new kids on the block and best friendships.

Since the start of Legally India's blogging competition in January, a total of 50 law bloggers (blawgers) have shared legal thoughts, laughs, pains and the downright surreal. With a little over two months to go in the competition this round-up looks at the most popular bloggers and posts to date.

We are also pleased to announce two new sponsored jury prizes for the most thought provoking blog posts on issues of social and legal importance, worth Rs 20,000 (see details below), which was kindly donated by a practising lawyer.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has been pivotal in the debate on the entry of foreign law firms. The Solicitor general and newly elected BCI chairman Gopal Subramaniam tells Legally India about what has to happen before foreign lawyers can practice here.

Solicitor general and newly elected Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Gopal Subramaniam talks to Legally India about his top priorities and pushes for a bar exam and continuing legal education, in this first part of a two-part interview.

"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult." The old saying that can be illustrative in the career success stories of many women, and perhaps few places more so than of female lawyers at the Bar.

"As far as Ashurst is concerned, I'm very happy with where we are today," says the firm's India group head Richard Gubbins. For a lawyer who is just about to shut down an office he has helped build and defend for 15 years, he does not sound upset at all. Is he just putting a brave face on things or is the firm secretly glad to be rid of what had turned into an expensive millstone?

Legally India is starting the first competition to find India's best legal blogger with a total prize fund of Rs 1 lakh, regular paid writing gigs and more for winners. Do you have what it takes?

"Law was often looked at as a marriage degree - three years in law, then you get married," recalls AZB founding partner Zia Mody about women's views of a legal career 30 years ago. Since then law firms have gradually fought the profession's gender bias, arguably more successfully in India than abroad. But there is still a long way to go.

The Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council polls closed yesterday (7 January), amid allegations of candidates having used "money, gifts and illegal methods", according to a newspaper report.

Two thirds of lawyers think a lockstep partnership model is the correct long-term model for a law firm but only one third of equity partners share that view, according to the 2009 law firm survey by legal sector services provider Rainmaker.