Do Senior Advocates / Advocates also engage in a lot of advisory / opinion work? What areas of law is this side of practice focused on? Who are the reputed ones in this side of practice? Is it feasible to develop an advisory/opinion practice as a non-senior-designated counsel?
No one will come to you as a counsel for an opinion unless you have a thriving practice and have distinguished yourself. It is not possible to get opinion mandates otherwise.
Yes, some of them do in the sense of strategic pre- or during-dispute advice. That is not strictly what you are thinking about I guess.
Sometimes, a senior (or a retired judge) will be engaged to provide a degree of comfort or 'face value' to the position being taken.
But sometimes, there is actually a complicated point where a law firm or a Big 4 may value independent expert advice. This type of 'opinion' work where independent advocates are engaged is in technically complex areas generally. When it comes to this, the preferred seniors are very few: you need someone who has technical expertise, a good reputation, and someone who will actually give plenty of time! It need not be a designated senior but it is typically someone who is technically solid.
Somasekhar Sundaresan (though not a designated senior) had a huge opinion practice in addition to his SAT and SC securities litigation work, before becoming a judge. Arvind Datar, Porus Kaka (senior advocates) and Arvind Sonde (not a designated senior) have a lot of opinion work when it comes to taxation. Typically, they will charge around Rs. 12-15 lakhs for a written opinion (but this very much depends on the complexity of the issue).
There are a few younger (non-designated) ones - around age 40 - who are starting to pick up opinion work where the issues may be complicated but the stakes may not be huge. But that is again because they were able to establish themselves as technically sound persons who developed strong professional relationships with instructing solicitors, that instructing solicitors started to value their opinion.
Sometimes, a senior (or a retired judge) will be engaged to provide a degree of comfort or 'face value' to the position being taken.
But sometimes, there is actually a complicated point where a law firm or a Big 4 may value independent expert advice. This type of 'opinion' work where independent advocates are engaged is in technically complex areas generally. When it comes to this, the preferred seniors are very few: you need someone who has technical expertise, a good reputation, and someone who will actually give plenty of time! It need not be a designated senior but it is typically someone who is technically solid.
Somasekhar Sundaresan (though not a designated senior) had a huge opinion practice in addition to his SAT and SC securities litigation work, before becoming a judge. Arvind Datar, Porus Kaka (senior advocates) and Arvind Sonde (not a designated senior) have a lot of opinion work when it comes to taxation. Typically, they will charge around Rs. 12-15 lakhs for a written opinion (but this very much depends on the complexity of the issue).
There are a few younger (non-designated) ones - around age 40 - who are starting to pick up opinion work where the issues may be complicated but the stakes may not be huge. But that is again because they were able to establish themselves as technically sound persons who developed strong professional relationships with instructing solicitors, that instructing solicitors started to value their opinion.