London
Exclusive: ALMT Legal, following its split from Clyde & Co and a number of partners in April, has re-started offices in London and Delhi with two lateral hires joining as partners while Mumbai partners Sameer Tapia and Hitesh Jain will relocate part-time.
One year after it first sued 41 foreign laws firms, the Association of Indian Lawyers (AIL) has filed a case against the Delhi-based London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), wanting to excise the words “London Court” and alleging that the arbitration organisation is introducing foreign law and lawyers under the garb of arbitration.
Exclusive: The London Court of International Arbitration’s (LCIA) first independent subsidiary LCIA India has commenced business with its first two arbitration cases received within six months of the publication of the LCIA arbitration and mediation rules in April this year.
FoxMandal Little's London office has hired UK MP Keith Vaz as a "brand ambassador", while the firm's similar commercial retainer with its previous London consultant and former High Court judge has ended.
The London Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) set up its India chapter in Delhi yesterday, following the Delhi High Court setting up an arbitration cell last week and the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) move to Delhi.
It hopes to promote alternative dispute resolution (ADR) under the chairmanship of Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) president Lalit Bhasin.
Are you still an Indian advocate if you are abroad? For the purposes of India's National Law Day Awards this year, yes: Singhania & Co London office managing partner Vijay Goel and FoxMandal London partner Ajit Mishra have won the prize, alongside Amarchand Mangaldas Delhi managing partner Shardul Shroff.
Covington & Burling and Trilegal have co-operated on the IPO of Indian Energy on London's Alternative Investment Market (AIM), which is only the fourth successful listing this year on the London Stock Exchange-owned smaller market.
Tata Steel has selected an identical roster of firms to advise on its latest fundraising in London, with Amarchand Mangaldas, Talwar Thakore Associates, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy reprising their roles from the monster 2008 Corus acquisition-related rights issue.
London paper the Evening Standard has run a scare story on legal jobs going to India today, which makes a welcome change on the paper's usual stories on transport chaos and terrorism.
FoxMandal Little's (FML) outsourcing arm in particular, will supposedly be single-handedly responsible for taking away 1,000 UK lawyers' jobs by the end of the year, according to a quick extrapolation done by the Evening Standard on the back of a napkin.
As far as Legally India understands it, FML's outsourcing venture Legal Circle is still one of the smaller operations in the market but that should not put a halt to ambition.
Legal Circle's outsourcing head Soumitro Chatterjee told the Evening Standard that he had met 10 UK firms and added: "All of them are thinking of creating between 50 to 100 seats [jobs]."
Is the paper counting FML's chickens before they've hatched, perhaps? No, 10 times 100 equals 1,000. That'll make a headline.
Most Evening Standard readers are not excited by the prospect, however remote.
"Outsourcing work to India is not good," writes Jan Need from Romford in the on-line comments. "It would probably be a lot easier to do [the work] in London in the first place. The main reason for all this is obvious. £6,000 for a lawyer in Mumbai £70,000+ for a London lawyer. Need I say more?"
Photo by vlima.com
India needs to enhance its arbitration offerings and overhaul its courts’ processes to give its backlog of cases any chance of closure before the year 3000.
A trip to the neo-Gothic Bombay High Court is an entertaining experience that should be on every visiting lawyer’s travel itinerary. Once past the sandbagged machine gun emplacements outside, loosen your tie and spend a few hours wandering about open-air corridors between throngs of locals, hundreds of offices with unfathomable purposes and court rooms filled beyond bursting point.
Also spare a thought for the unfortunate litigants, who will most likely not find the experience as enjoyable.
The running joke in India goes that, if you litigate here, your sons and daughters will inherit your dispute.
ALMT Legal has formed a best friends relationship with UK international firm Clyde & Co.
In a joint statement the firms said that they would share information, harmonise training and set in place an extensive secondment programme.
ALMT partner S R Arun (pictured) said: "We anticipate that we will have access to the markets where Clyde is and that not many of the large magic circle firms have got access to."