We said it the other day when we reported that new Indian Law Minister Veerappa Moily was taking steps backward on opening up the Indian legal market to overseas law firms by saying that the government would work in concert with the various Indian legal associations and bar socities…
Surprise surprise.. the comments have allowed the Bar Council of India to step forward and put up the iron curtain again. A few months ago it looked like we were crawling towards an agreement that would open up the Indian legal market. Here at AALE we reckon that the process has now stepped back at least a year with the appointment of a new minister who’s decided to take a concilliatory approach with the Bar Council and other associations.
Maybe India would be impressed if each UK & US giant who wants entry into the Indian legal market allocate a senior partner to grow a beard and dreadlocks and become a roving legal Sadhu wandering the highways and byways of India preaching the advantages of foreign legal involvement in the local legal market.
P.S. Patnaik writes for Bloomberg…
Indian lawyers said they rejected opening the country’s legal market to foreign law firms after a June 8 meeting with Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
“Our stand is clear,” Bar Council of India President Suraj Narain P. Sinha said in an interview yesterday. “We should not allow entry of foreign law firms in the present scenario.”
Moily, appointed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s re- elected government last month, said last week that his focus was on reforms to clear the backlog of cases choking the country’s courts. His predecessor H. R. Bhardwaj had urged Indian lawyers to stop opposing the entry of overseas firms, saying that they would create new legal jobs in the country.
“India will decide the entry of foreign law firms after getting the open consent of the legal fraternity,” Moily told Bloomberg News June 9 after meeting Sinha and other Indian lawyers. Moily will meet the Bar Council again June 26-27.
International law firms have been barred from practicing law in India since a 1995 ruling by Mumbai’s High Court that local lawyers have a monopoly. The foreign firms have set up alliances with Indian firms and practices in other countries to serve companies doing Indian deals.
Full Report At: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aLF7jdGEKGiI
