Following the appointment of NLSIU Bangalore graduate and White & Case London partner Dipen Sabharwal last year, much older Indian law graduate and senior counsel Harish Salve has been bestowed the highest professional title of the bar of England and Wales, becoming Queen’s Counsel (QC).

Salve is understood to have been spending much of his summer Indian court holidays in London, acting primarily in international arbitrations.

His appointment is part of a round of 114 new so-called “silks” appointed by the UK’s Ministry of Justice, as reported in the UK legal press (link requires free registration to read), which also included several UK law firm partners:

Five partners from firms including Clyde & Co, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and Herbert Smith Freehills are among 114 new QCs appointed in this year’s silk round. Private practice partners who made the grade include two Freshfields partners: solicitor Nigel Blackaby and barrister Noah Rubins and Clyde & Co [Singapore] partner Sapna Jhangiani. Jhangiani is the only female solicitor advocate to have made silk in this year’s round and has been a partner at Clydes for six years, based in its Singapore office.

As we had first reported in 2013, Salve had joined the English bar becoming a resident at the prestigious Blackstone Chambers having been fast-tracked through the local process.

At the time he said that he supported liberalisation of the Indian legal market too, and the “very flexible” system in the UK, which seems to be borne out by his QC appointment.

Salve was designated senior counsel by the Delhi high court in 1992.