<div><span style="font-style: italic;"> It will take another 5 to 7 years for foreign law forms to set up offices in India, says </span><strong style="font-style: italic;">Monica Behura</strong></div><div><br>The government plans to allow foreign law firms to practice in the country, and on a reciprocal basis. It is a way forward to what the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced in April this year a plan to make India a global arbitration and legal services hub.</div><div> </div><div>Although the debate on the opening up of the legal sector has been doing the rounds for quite some time now, there has been no major development in this regard in the last few years. But things have been moving in this direction by the NDA government taking conducive steps. “The inter-ministerial group (IMG) headed by the commerce secretary have been active on this since January this year. Since then we have had two meetings where we put forward our proposals and are now awaiting another meeting to take it forward,” says Lalit Bhasin, president, Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF).</div><div> </div><div>The Bar Council of India (BCI) and SILF had submitted their proposals to the committee that comprised 17 other ministries like the external affairs, home ministry, and finance among other ministries.</div><div> </div><div>The opening up of the foreign law firms in India will happen only in a phased manner. “The first phase will see the opening of legal services within India, the second phase will see practicing their own law,” says Mr. Bhasin who was a core person representing the community of Indian law firms.<br> </div><div>He added that it will take another 5 to 7 years for foreign law forms to set up offices in India.</div><div> </div><div>However, in the past, many international large US and UK based law firms like DLA Piper, Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Beachcroft LLP amongst others worked informally with the Indian law firms through referral agreements with them. Referral agreement is “non-exclusive”, which is termed as a “best friend” relationship since either of the party can have referral agreements with other firms, and “non-financial” as there is no profit sharing involved. Therefore, no violation of the ban on foreign law firms practising in India.</div><div> </div><div>Through the ‘referral’ way both the law firms can have clients in either countries and explore opportunities in various business sectors.</div><div> </div>
