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Turns out that some of our competitors and our firm has come down to India throughout the year to think about how they want to approach entry into the Indian market. They’ve met some major MDs of Indian firms.
The 2-3 options they are currently considering from a Business perspective is whether to 1) Open a brand new office, 2) Acquire a smaller law firm and rebrand it - which seems to be a common method for large global law firms to enter into new markets or 3) do an exclusivity deal where the foreign firm do exclusive referral for jurisdiction specific work to their Indian partner and vice versa with the Indian firm, when there is outbound work. My firm has done both 1) and 2) but recently found success with 3) in another jurisdiction after pulling out their offices in that jurisdiction.
There is excitement about India, which is obvious but a lot of firms and their competitors are waiting for others to make the first move and then see what the results are so they can enter at a slower pace. I would not expect to see firms do anything for the next 1 year at least, but that is just a guess.
Feds have just cut rates, so expecting work to really push into third gear, maybe if another “free money” era passes by, foreign law firms can use all that extra capital to do either of 1) or 2) above.
I’m as excited about what is to come with the future of law firms in India because I think it might really be a great decade or two for the economy.
First, may I ask if you could elaborate on why you don't expect foreign law firms to make any substantive moves until at least a year from now? Aren't they just wasting valuable time and opportunities? Is it because they want to observe the market a bit more?
Also, wasn't the point of the recent change in the rules of the BCI that foreign law firms shouldn't be restricted to Option 3)? Isn't option 3) similar to the old 'best friend' arrangements of which A&O (as it then was), CC and the like got tired, because they didn't see the prospect of further opening up of the market soon? So why are some firms still limiting themselves to consideration of option 3)?