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I am presently in law school and follow industry discussions largely here on LegallyIndia. I have noticed a recurrent theme in many of the threads: that sometime in the early 2010s, the legal services industry stalled in a manner from which it has never seemingly recovered as such. Salaries seem to have stagnated and foreign offers have all but dried up.
I was wondering what the causes behind the same are. Is there something specific to the legal market, or is it just a symptom of the wider economic slowdown in India, or perhaps both?
Any views would be appreciated!
All in all, world and India was growing faster in the 2000s than in the 2010s - for one reason or another.
CPI 2016: 79
CPI 2020: 86
In short, economy stagnated, fee rates stagnated big time, hourly fee became exception than the norm, supply of lawyers increased, and there is no real pressure to increase salaries.
Yes, there was a round of salary hikes in 2006-2008 as a result of foreign law firms hiring Indian lawyers and law grads. The foreign Law firms would have eventually opened offices in India if they were allowed in 2006-2008 phase, but their driver to open office was to capture the outbound work from India, which has dried up significantly. If foreign law firms are allowed in today, I don’t see them hiring in huge numbers or opening offices with massive headcounts - at best they will have liaison offices/very small offices in India with 5-6 lawyers – the foreign law firms will never compete for the mid-market domestic work, which accounts for substantial chunk of revenues for most law firms, so I fail to see how the Indian law firm owners will be bothered.