Having survived recent media speculation that he was on his way out, law minister Veerappa Moily showed off that he is very much aware of the issues around him, as revealed in a candid interview with business daily Mint this week. He also remains ever the seasoned politician.

Moily cites China and accepts the business need of allowing foreign firms in, for example, although he fears it would also be “inviting big agitation”, which very well it might. He recognises that legal regulation reform needs to take place while giving a deferential bow to the powers of the Bar Council of India (BCI) though he is clear that taking away legal education from the BCI will “cause some pain”.

Despite all the nice words, so far all reform plans really only exist only on paper but at least the rest of the system is not standing still: the second accused in the alleged BCI-law school accreditation scam is now behind bars after having been denied bail.

And the BCI has now at least got its bar exam act together in respect of logistics, with almost 22,000 study materials successfully received, if the figures are accurate. An uglier truth, however, is that the exam lurched ahead without proper buy-in from many graduates, which would ideally have been avoided.

The Maharashtra and Goa bar council is taking matters into its own hands with ambitious plans by its youngest member to bring the majority of state bar council workings online, soon posting a public tender for the work.

Meanwhile, Luthra & Luthra’s capital markets practice celebrated its third partner, as promised, and the win of another mammoth Rs 12,500 crore disinvestment with DLA Piper – albeit at discounted rates.

Surprise news in legal education circles this week after HNLU’s vice chancellor professor Jaswal left after two months in the job to join RGNUL. Read the full story here and why Jaswal intends to stay part of the HNLU family.

The Mooting Premier League is getting more exciting by the week after ILS Pune bagged a coveted Jessup ticket beating both Nalsar and NLSIU. More on that next week.

Finally, last weekend saw no change at the top for the Mumbai cricketing crown, with Wadia Ghandy defending its title at the 2011 ELP Mumbai cricket cup, while the toss of a coin sealed others’ fates.

Deals feed
- AZB, ALMT, Indus top 2010 private equity deal rankings, ahead of DSK, Tatva - Clifford Chance, AZB, JSA triple-team for Bayer in Zydus pharma JV - PXV, Indus structure Rs 15 crore Sequoia-Elevar hospital investment - ELP win: Brand promotion without reference to offering not service taxable

Law students and education
- 9 teams win admits to Oxford IPR and Dubai Leiden-Sarin Air Law moots - Herbert Smith head, Oxford law dean lecture at NLU-Delhi and NUJS, perhaps Nalsar 2012 - Jindal puts on first-of-its-kind virtual classroom with students in US

Best of blogs

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