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"Time has come to take a call on the issue. Bar Council of India is of the view that opening up of law practice in India to foreign lawyers in the field of practice of foreign law; diverse international legal issues in nonlitigious matters and in international arbitration cases would go a long way in helping legal profession/domain grow in India to the benefit of lawyers in India too."
At least the corporate sector gets profitable with this . Also The article quoted “
- They shall be allowed to practice on transactional work/corporate work such as joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property matters, drafting of contracts and other related matters on reciprocal basis.”
[TOI: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bar-council-allows-foreign-lawyers-law-firms-to-practice-in-india/articleshow/98654185.cms ]
[Notification: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23707847-bar-council-of-india-allows-entry-of-foreign-law-firms ]
"Provided that an Advocate enrolled with any State Bar Council in India and is a partner or Associate in any Foreign Law Firm registered in India under these rules and regulations, can take up only the non-litigious matters and can advise on issues relating to countries other than the Indian Laws only. Such Lawyer shall have no advantage / right of his being an Advocate enrolled in India."
What US/UK law firm will open office in India and engage you to advise on US/UK law?
No one's coming.
A. Operate how Big4 do in India. Have several Indian incorporated LLP/entities with Indian only (or dual qualified) partners. Have these entities pay for brand licenses fees, fractional office space rent, and shared services. Hence you have a fully Indian law firm entity which is an Affiliate of say A&O India. What will stop A&O branded Gokulchand Manikanthan LLP from advising on Indian law?
B. Be cheeky and don't call retainers as 'Associate / Partner'. Call or something else or structure it differently.
First, we need a treaty with the countries that would allow Indian lawyers to practice in their country in the same manner.
Second, any foreign law firm would need to invest a large amount in an Indian office. Indian clients are usually not the best paymasters. For large Indian transactions, you do see foreign lawyers. But they are perfectly capable of working on the matters remotely.
Thirdly, Indian lawyers who work for foreign firms can take up only the non-litigious matters and can advise on issues relating to countries other than the Indian Laws only. Such Lawyer shall have no advantage / right of his being an Advocate enrolled in India. So unless an Indian lawyer has the relevant foreign qualification and advises on foreign law, he can't effectively work at a foreign firm.
1. They may end up opening offices here (of the size of what CAM has in Singapore or Khaitan in the US) but cannot expect any significant hiring from the indian grad pool. Their offices would at best be satellite offices for soliciting business or providing secretarial support in case of arbitrations (if happening in India) or for government registrations/approvals etc.
2. Even if they open offices here what would be the point of hiring Indian grads if they are practicing foreign law anyways? Similar issue as limited vacation schemes/training contracts for Indian grads sans the visa sponsorship problem.
All in all, the widespread excitement about lala firms going down or working conditions improving significantly is unfounded.
THIS IS BIG.
It is still a long way from the liberalisation of the Indian legal sector, but it's definitely a step in a positive direction. This could genuinely open so many opportunities for corporate lawyers. UK & US firms would most probably expand to India for doing their work at cheaper rates, this could also mean that the demand for international law experts are bound to increase. As far as I can infer, they will be allowed to practice on transactional or corporate work such as joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property matters, drafting of contracts, and other related matters, while excluding litigious matters.
What do law firm peeps think of this?
Lala logo ko bhagana hai
Tada Silf Uncles
My message to all the Lala firms: 🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕 💩💩💩💩💩💩
In just 5 years time, these firms will be lucky if even Amity grads apply to them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q836C2QR41A
Does this mean they can eat into lala firm activities?
For anything to really change, there has to be consensus that there is a real potential in the Indian legal talent among leading law firms.
What could change:
1. More opportunities for corporate lawyers in all their respective domains.
2. More opportunities = more intake of law graduates.
3. I speculate that the income increase would only be offered by a few select foreign firms that are willing to pay the big bucks to attract the cream of the crop of law graduates, Indian law firms might follow suit depending on the availability of the desired law graduates.
Exactly what Big 4 accounting firms are doing in India with their global centers. And they will probably have tie ups with Indian law firms for Indian advisory work like BSR KPMG and Nangia Andersen. ( but this will take years to happen)
As far as Indian law firms are concerned they are not going anywhere. ( but lets hope that salaries and work life balance improves)
Foreign law can also be learned while at work. Look at tech folks. Nothing of what they do is taught to them in colleges.
- Nehru-Indira perpetuated licence raj, Nehru nationalised Air India and literally stole it from JRD Tata, Indira nationalised banks
- Vajpayee created a separate ministry for disinvestment, Modi handed Air India back to the Tatas, other companies have also been privatised, saving thousands of crores to the exchequer.
- Modi has allowed foreign universities, increased FDI limits in various sectors
https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/bjp-is-worlds-most-important-party-wall-street-journal20230321102843/
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Foreign law firms and lawyers cannot appear before Courts and Tribumals but The arbitration business of India will go away into the hands of foreign law firms and lawyers.Even the India matters the foreign law firm will tie up with a Indian firm then the name on vakaltnama will be Indian but the work and billing will also go foreign law firms.Basically the disputes teams that appear in Indian Courts will not worry that much but arbitration work is going to ho away from Indian law firms
A judge of the Gujarat High Ciurt has expressed happiness on entry of foreign law firms holding opinion that litigants Will get treated better.......She has nicely observed how ill treated poor litigants are..........with foreign firms coming employment should increase but bosses and partners who I'll treat their own associates are probably not going to get entry to these foreign firms no matter how big their Indian client book*the Indian clients will not jump to foreign firm easily given its expected foreign firm will be expensive........