Commerce secretary Rajeev Kher told Mint that a committee of secretaries may “meet as early as this month to clear the proposal on legal services, which will be subsequently placed before the cabinet for a final decision”.

The Indian Express reported that the Bar Council of India (BCI) had submitted its affidavit in the Supreme Court appeal against the AK Balaji case decided in the Madras high court against law foreign firms. The affidavit filed by BCI counsel Ardhendumauli K Prasad purports to rely on the 2009 Lawyer...

Law minister https://www.legallyindia.com/Law-firms/legal-market-liberalisation-investigation-into-lobbying-and-policy told The Hindu : “Yes, Japan has written to us. We are taking the issue of opening up our legal sector on a positive note, but on the condition that it will increase the face-value ...

Legally India investigates in Mint how special interests have succeeded at and could end up indefinitely stalling reform of legal services, despite the government’s best laid intentions.

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 s...

Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) president Lalit Bhasin told the Business Standard that a plan of phased entry into India of foreign law firms should begin in 2015, subject to a number of conditions.

Lalit Bhasin has written in a Business Standard column that he was now in favour of allowing the phased entry of foreign law firms…

An unnamed “government official” told the Hindu Businessline that the commerce ministry was putting “finishing touches” to a proposal to liberalise transactional legal services and international arbitration. “The idea was discussed in detail at the 12 November National Services Conclave,” said the o...

Supreme Court advocate, Lok Sabha member and BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi, speaking at a legal conference yesterday, said that she would ‘extend protection’ for Indian lawyers against the entry of foreign law firms to India.

UK law minister Shailesh Vara, who is of Gujarati origins, has lobbied for the entry of foreign law firms to practise non-Indian transactional law here during his ongoing visit to India. Vara said at a press conference in Ahmedabad, according to the PTI : “I had met Indian Law Minister Ravi Shankar ...

The Finance Ministry’s 2013-14 economic survey reported that the average growth of the legal industry between 2005-06 and 2012-13 remained at 8.2 per cent per annum – the same average figure found in last year’s economic survey between 2005 and 2012 . However, the report did not specify the actual g...

The Financial Times ’ Mumbai correspondent James Crabtree visits Amarchand Mumbai’s top husband and wife team Cyril and Vandana Shroff at their home, documenting their symbiotic working relationship, decorating nous and fondness for all things elephant-themed, for the business paper’s House & H...

Foreign lawyers should be allowed to work on arbitrations in India to make domestic arbitration more attractive and to unburden the courts said Supreme Court justices SS Nijjar and PC Ghose and retired judge AK Ganguly, reported Kolkata paper The Telegraph . Nijjar said at the seminar by the Indian ...

Twenty months after the Supreme Court (SC) had given 10 weeks to complete serving notices on foreign law firms, the Bar Council of India (BCI) appeal against foreign law firms practicing in India, remains stuck at the service stage.

With Lok Sabha elections now scheduled to start on 7 April it is fair to ask: what has the current government done for India’s legal profession? And can any of the others do better?

The senior advocate, who will join top English barristers’ set Blackstone Chambers, argued forcefully for liberalisation of the Indian legal market.

Everything you need to know.

Senior counsel Anil Divan wants practical position paper on liberalisation from government.

Legal services in India grew by an average of 8.2 per cent each year between 2005 and 2012, according to the 2012-13 economic survey that was prepared by the finance ministry. It also noted that “liaison offices” by foreign law firms were permitted under Indian law and recommended “exploring” greater access for foreign law firms, which would “improve the competitiveness of the Indian market”.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has ruled that foreign qualified lawyers may work as in-house lawyers in all 50 US states with limited authority. In India in-house lawyers have to surrender state bar council registrations, meaning they can effectively work without oversight of the legal regulator...