The Indian judiciary has been grappling with the question of whether to permit foreign lawyers to practice in India for more than two decades. After yesterday’s hearing in the Supreme Court, it doesn’t look like any end is in sight.

With an eye to make India an arbitration hub, the union cabinet on Wednesday approved a number of amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Bill, 2015 to make the resolution of commercial disputes less time-consuming with an option of fast-tracking the process. However, the draft bill or the Pr...

On 25 August the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) hosted a meeting with journalists and Arun Jaitley, finance and information and broadcast minister.

The proposal for phased liberalisation of Indian legal services has not crossed the Bar Council of India (BCI) hurdle, India told the World Trade Organisation (WTO), reported The Hindu Businessline . WTO’s periodic trade policy review of its member countries threw up questions posed by other members...

Brus Chambers, a Mumbai-based law firm has opened a subsidiary firm headquartered in New York.

The government is close to finalising its proposal to allow foreign legal firms to operate out of India via investment in partnership or proprietary concerns, reported the Express . The legal sector would be opened up gradually according to the report. An unnamed official said that “permission will ...

Commerce ministry joint secretary Sudhanshu Pandey told a US-Indian delegation today that the government would seek to pass an amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act this session that would allow foreign lawyers to come to India to act for their clients in arbitrations in order to boost domestic arbitrations.

Can your accountant also assist you on drafting a joint venture agreement? Or is this work best left to a lawyer to check for compliance with various rules and legislation? And what happens when one company drops a nasty legal notice on the former joint venture partner? Is when things get contentious and litigious the line where only a lawyer can step in and take care of business?

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”)*Endless jobs? Sacks of money for all? Better working conditions for everyone? Young lawyer Dhruv Balai Paul ponders the implications of the possible entry of foreign law firms to India.

The Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) will complain to the Bar Council of Delhi in the coming week against PDS Legal, Advaita Legal and other Indian law firms that are best friends with accountancy firms, as a follow-up to its recent complaints in the council against the Big Four consultancies E&Y, KPMG, PwC and Deloitte for their alleged unauthorized practice of law.

The Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) elected Lalit Bhasin as its president for the third-consecutive time, in an uncontested election on Saturday. Bhasin will preside over the 15 year old society for another three-year term. Kochhar & Co founder Rohit Kochhar was elected the general secretary...

Economic Times and ET Now reported that the Delhi bar council, after a written complaint by the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf), has served written notice on the Big Four accountancy firms, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY, for allegedly “engaging in the unauthorised practice” of law: Following the ind...

Commerce ministry Rajeev Kher held a press conference yesterday, saying that the government had begun talks about opening up the transactional legal services sector and India-based international arbitration, having drawn in law firm lobby group Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) and the regulator Bar Council of India (BCI).

Bar Council of India (BCI) chairman Manan Kumar Mishra has sent an unsolicited email to Legally India’s editor Kian Ganz earlier today, after having sent a legal notice claiming defamation just over one week ago.

The Business Standard today wrote a longer article with a number of law firm lawyers’ views about the entry of foreign law firms and prime minister [https://www.legallyindia.com/Law-firms/narendra-modi-speaks-for-foreign-lawyers-entry-fears-of-foreign-domination-unfounded Narendra Modi’s recent rema...

Harish Salve tweeted today at @hsalve on the issue of the foreign law firms, which prime minister Narendra Modi had recently come out in support of , saying: Entry of foreign law firms will result in young Indian lawyers being hired and trained to global standards. No foreign lawyer can or will prac...

“Why should we need to go outside the country for global arbitration? We shouldn’t think that if foreign lawyers come here, they will take away our jobs,” said prime minister Narendra Modi, for the first time publicly weighing in on the liberalisation debate, adding that fears that foreign lawyers would dominate the local profession were unfounded.

Senior advocate Harish Salve was celebrated by the Society of Indian Law Firms (Silf) at a dinner earlier this evening, for having received the Padma Bhushan.

Senior advocate Harish Salve is assisting the 50-lawyer strong society of Indian lawyers fighting the Bar Council of India (BCI) in the Supreme Court, for liberalisation in Indian legal services.

The Bar Council of India’s (BCI) appeal opposing entry of foreign law firms into India today inched forward in the Supreme Court, as the respondents finished filing their written submissions 32 months after the first hearing in the case.