For most lawyers it has been business as usual this week despite much of India descending into swine flu panic, today's streets being awash with Hindu god Lord Krishna's birthday celebrations and Independence Day national holidays tomorrow.

Deals still need to get done, after all, and there are plenty of sides to be acting for.

India is one of the few jurisdictions where lawyers are not subject to professional conflict rules and it is common for firms to act as joint counsel for both the buyer and the seller on M&A transactions.

As commenters rightly pointed out in relation to this 650-crore Essar Steel deal, nothing but common decency really prohibits law firm conflicts in India and in fact clients often request top lawyers explicitly to act on both sides of the table.

But surely it is only a matter of time before a lawyer finds that buyers' and sellers' interests are not always aligned.

In the overt absence of the official regulators' and legislators' concerns, should law firms then take the lead and institute a voluntary code of conflicts?

Most large Indian law firms are unlikely to jump at the chance. With a minority of firms advising a majority of top Indian corporates, conflict is inevitable and a robust approach is profitable.

Ethics is one thing that the new Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) would like to place highly on its agenda after opening its doors to the first students next month. The law school has ambitious plans in emulating the successes (and excesses?) of the US law school system to foster a lively academic and professional legal debate.

Could JGLS be the most radical shake-up of Indian legal education since the advent of the national law schools? Or is it merely business as usual?

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