foreign law firms

Prem Mohan, who had graduated in 2007 from NLSIU Bangalore, has been promoted to partner in Kirkland & Ellis London office in the financial services regulatory practice.

Liberalisation of legal services directly upholds citizens’ constitutional right to the choice of lawyers they want to engage, in Prof NR Madhava Menon’s view.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has backtracked on its earlier full-throated support of liberalisation of the legal market in a six-page letter, saying that it had encountered “strong opposition” from state bar councils and was therefore withdrawing its earlier draft rules to allow foreign lawyers.

The Indian Corporate Counsel Association (ICCA) has produced draft of a Foreign Legal Practitioners (Regulation of Practice) Bill 2016, which it will present at today’s meeting with ministries and stakeholders at 17:30 in Delhi.

The Indian National Bar Association (INBA), which released a report last week calling for the entry of foreign law firms this year, has now also been invited to also meet the Government in tomorrow’s talks on legal market liberalisation.

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom has hired 2005-ILS Pune graduate Parveet Singh Gandoak to the firm as a counsel in Singapore from Debevoise & Plimpton, where he had worked between 2011 and 2016 as an associate.

The Indian National Bar Association (INBA) has weighed into the legal market liberalisation debate, coming up with a proposal that would see foreign law firms entering by the end of this year, with “complete liberalisation” proposed to happen by the end of 2019.

The Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) has sent its notes to the commerce ministry in the latest stage of the liberalisation talks.

Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) Sonepat and the Indiana University Center on the Global Legal Profession is hosting a very interesting panel discussion today, which I intend to live blog here.

According to a copy of the minutes of the meeting of Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) members on Monday, the SILF “decided to organise an interaction over dinner” with the recently re-appointed new law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister of state PP Chaudhary and law secretary Suresh Chandra, who is spearheading the liberalisation talks.

The Narendra Modi government’s push for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill and other legislation - including potential reforms of the legal services sector - could see another roadblock in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament with the Congress getting set to attack the Centre on the Supreme Court verdict to restore the ousted Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh.

Shearman & Sterling, DLA Piper, White & Case and Allen & Overy had the largest number of recorded Indian M&A deals in the first six months of 2016, according to data intelligence provider mergermarket, each with five or four transactions.

The Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) meeting held in Delhi yesterday (11 July) to discuss its response and position to the Government proposal to liberalise the legal market, has seen the body set up a high-powered committee without any fundamental disagreements voiced about the next steps to take, according to several people who were present.

This morning’s hotly anticipated meeting between government ministries and several non-governmental organisations, including the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) and the Bar Council of India (BCI), passed without any principled resistance by stakeholders to the allowing foreign lawyers to practice in India.

The liberalisation process might never have been as advanced, but it remains a process fraught with sensitivity.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) has drafted rules to allow foreign lawyers to practice in India, with the law and justice ministry having invited other ministries and three other organisations to discuss the proposals on Tuesday (5 July).

A South Korean citizen who graduated from JGLS Sonepat last year is facing a dead end at the Bar Council of India (BCI), on her application to take the All India Bar Exam (AIBE). She took admission to JGLS relying on the reciprocity clause in the Advocates Act 1961.

After a meeting between the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the law ministry on the subject of the entry of foreign law firms.

The bar councils are the only remaining speed bump in the government liberalising legal services, the law ministry secretary responsible for implementing the entry of foreign law firms said today.

An American Bar Association (ABA) source told Legally India that the ABA president Paulette Brown had met with the law minister yesterday and talked about liberalisation.