Exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI) is to take 20 lawyers on secondment from law firms to help it regulate transactional law practice better, said BCI chairman Gopal Subramanium and Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) chairman Lalit Bhasin on Friday.

Exclusive: The Bar Council of India (BCI) has requested comments on the new draft code of ethics for advocates, which introduces rules on conflicts of interests, bans conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) and continues to restrict advertising and business interests of lawyers.

Attorney General of India Goolam Vahanvati was conflicted out of providing the government with a legal opinion on the Vedanta-Cairns deal because his son AZB & Partners Mumbai partner Essaji Vahanvati had worked on the deal, according to a report in the Daily Pioneer today.

For most lawyers it has been business as usual this week despite much of India descending into swine flu panic, today’s streets being awash with Hindu god Lord Krishna’s birthday celebrations and Independence Day national holidays tomorrow.

Deals still need to get done, after all, and there are plenty of sides to be acting for.