Foreign Law Firms in India.

 

The Bar Council Of India has approved foreign law firms to open their offices in India. On March 13 the Bar Council Of India allowed foreign lawyers with foreign degrees to open and practice law in India which will take an effect on Indian lawyers in the short and long term. It will bring more competition by competition I mean it will be a healthy competition and many Indian lawyers will get to learn insights into practice from different court systems around the world. Here I would say that Indian lawyers can capitalize on their understanding of Indian law and can charge fees for providing mentorship to foreign law firms coming into India. Indian lawyers cater to certain segments of the Indian market and specialize in that area of service and they can provide great insights into practicing law to these foreign firms coming to India to practice law.

The lawyer Client relationship is central to any law practice one would learn from other law firms as to how they maintain and keep that relationship strong and going forward. Again it will be a positive outlook as both Indian law firms and foreign law firms can learn from one another as to how to maintain a strong lawyer-client relationship and how good is a lawyer without the client-lawyer relationship.

Coming to foreign law firms in India, the Indian law firms would then have to adopt digitization of their legal practices. With legal technology adoption, Indian law firms would function more efficiently. As of now, many law firms are adopting artificial intelligence into their legal practice. With artificial intelligence, the workload would become less on the lawyer and he would focus on the precise information from the case brief. With data analytics and e-discovery tools, the law practice would be streamlined and will provide precise information to the lawyers from case briefs.

Strategic partnerships will develop as these foreign law firms will be coming into India. One will help the other in their areas of expert knowledge. They will both hire and retain the best-talented lawyers as competition will increase. To survive and flourish both the Indian and foreign law firms will have to have a supportive network for one another.

Foreign law firms will open practice in India in diverse international issues in non-litigious matters and international arbitrage cases will help Indian law firms get more work. This has happened for the first time since the passing of the Advocates Act of 1961 that till now was confined to the Indian lawyers only now will be more diverse.  

The international law firms will manage acquisitions, mergers, and international arbitrage. The scale of opportunities in India is huge for international law firms. This reform was long overdue and will bring in more business for law firms. These firms will serve Indian as well as International clients mostly doing business in India. As far as the client charges it would be difficult for the law firms to charge the amount they charge in Western countries to charge the same in India, they would have to adjust their fees accordingly to the Indian market.