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 ‘father of modern legal education’, as the founding vice chancellor of NLSIU Bangalore and NUJS Kolkata is often popularly referred to, commented: “One may submit that subject to some conditions internationalisation of the legal profession will be advantageous to the Indian bar and of great benefit to the litigant public.

“After all, the client has a constitutional right of choice of the lawyers which is to be respected even under a globalised regime.”

The comment was part of Menon’s lecture delivered in the Orissa high court bar association’s commemoration of the death anniversary of barrister Ranjit Mahanty on 2 September 2016.

Menon shared the full text of this lecture with us via email today, in response to our questions on whether he thinks foreign law firms should be allowed to set up shop India, what he makes of the current discussions on liberalisation between the government and other stakeholders, and what he thinks of the various proposals on liberalisation in legal services.

Menon commented via email: “I have spoken at length in favour of trade in legal services in a Memorial Lecture I delivered at the Orissa High Court Bar Association last month… This answers your first three questions.”

Excerpts from Menon’s speech

There are genuine concerns such as expectations of society for professional sensitivity to legal and cultural traditions, standard of professional service to clients which in turn demand uniform rules of professional ethics and disciplinary controls, independence of the profession, reasonable balance between local lawyers and their foreign counterparts in the matter of distribution of work, fees and market control. Professional control in any case will remain with the local professionals who are bound to be far greater in number and therefore powerful in organizational matters.

In the circumstances, one may submit that subject to some conditions internationalisation of the legal profession will be advantageous to the Indian bar and of great benefit to the litigant public. After all, the client has a constitutional right of choice of the lawyers which is to be respected even under a globalised regime.

There can be conditions to ensure quality of services rendered by foreign lawyers/firms and to ensure fair treatment of Indian lawyers/firms abroad.

They can be worked out through discussions and through GATS/WTO procedures.