The firm's chairman and managing partner Rohit Kochhar will be travelling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks to strengthen Kochhar & Co's ties to regional law firms.

He said: "We are going to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia to commence negotiations with leading law firms in those jurisdictions to explore a joint venture, which would make us pioneers in the Middle Eastern market as far as Indian law firms are concerned.

"As long as nature and the God-given earth is giving oil to the Arabs, a lot of the money is there, a lot of the investible surpluses are there and we want to be part of the action."

Kochhar noted that the region would be of great interest to Indian companies and law firms in the coming years.

India and the UAE were very active trading partners and even bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia was increasing, he said, adding that the huge surpluses regional sovereign funds commanded in the region far outstripped those in the Western world.

"Culturally, the Arabs will always be more comfortable with the Indians than with the Chinese," explained Kochhar. "I expect as time goes by, more and more oil dollars and oil money would flow into Indian companies."

A secondary purpose of his visit is to negotiate a non-law-related business joint venture with a Saudi Arabian law firm. However, he told Legally India that he was unable to disclose exact details, which were still confidential.

Rohit Kochhar was the first practising lawyer to be awarded "Young Entrepreneur of the Year" at the 12th Rajiv Gandhi Awards in mid-August. He was cited for establishing five vertical businesses next to founding and managing Kochhar & Co.

Read LegallyIndia.com next week for a full interview with Rohit Kochhar and his views on entrepreneurism in and outside of the legal profession.

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