Modi gov’t pushes for opening of Indian corporate law to foreign firms, in talks to BCI

Saturday, 28 February 2015 By Legally India Law firms

The Narendra Modi-led government has initiated talks with the Bar Council of India (BCI) to open up the Indian legal market to foreign law firms, reported the PTI, because it would assist in the government’s policy to increase the “ease of doing business” in India.

BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said that he had been holding “informal talks” with law minister DV Sadananda Gowda, with further talks between BCI and law secretary PK Malhotra to be held in the coming days.

The government also hopes that if foreign law firms open offices here, they would hire local lawyers to appear in courts and that they would give the government access to international legal experts to assist in arbitrations, according to PTI.

Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) president Lalit Bhasin has since December 2014 abandoned the law firm lobby group’s long-standing absolute opposition to foreign law firms, arguing for a roadmap of at least five years for the phased entry of foreign firms.

Comments

Random 28 Feb 2015, 23:35

+2 -2

Excellent News. Wonder if it will be in a phased manner or whether the legal market will be opened wholesale from the get go.

Pro Modi 1 Mar 2015, 03:08

+6 -1

This government is a government of action, great to see how fast this issue is taken up!

Guest 1 Mar 2015, 05:59

+6 -0

The breakup of Amarchand weakened SILF and came as a divine blessing to those hoping for liberalization.

I hope that Legally India will do more detailed stories on this and highlight pro-liberalization voices instead of quoting Lalit Bhasin all the time.

kianganz 1 Mar 2015, 06:07

+3 -0

Do buy a copy of Mint on Tuesday... A detailed story is filed and should be out then. :)

Superb!!! 1 Mar 2015, 06:03

+3 -4

This is really great news! Good for young lawyers and law students. Expect a good rise in salaries and professional working environment.

Guest 1 Mar 2015, 06:39

Only the Shroffs could do this to themselves. Now that you have done it, please let foreign firms in. They might actually be the only new thing to try in a market headed for a price war and increasing lawyer salaries. Thanks, anyways.

Analysis 2 Mar 2015, 05:48

+2 -0

How can a market that is headed for a price war start increasing lawyer salaries? If foreign firms come to India and get India Inc to increase fees only then will lawyer salaries rise. If lawyers get too expensive then you will have abrupt job termination that Indian lawyers have not seen in the past.

Guest 2 Mar 2015, 17:22

+0 -0

Hi Kian it would be great if you could do a story on the govt's vision for NLUs. The NLUs have received stepmotherly treatment compared to IITs and IIMs. They receive far less funding, faculty pay is low, infrastructure is also poor. We hope Arun Jaitley will do something about this (although his daughter went to Amity, so he may not care).

InsideWG 2 Mar 2015, 19:51

His son too. :D

Guest 3 Mar 2015, 00:05

+1 -0

Even if the markets open up, nothing much will change in India - the same people will be working here - only the name on the door will be different.

Anonymous 4 Mar 2015, 03:49

Would be great to see a story on the effects of foreign law firms for Indian lawyers - corporate lawyers, litigation lawyers, senior counsels, law firms.

Commenting is closed for this article.