BAR Council Needs To Draw Famework If Foreign Law Firms Are To Be Allowed: Lalit Bhasin

Veteran lawyer Lalit Bhasin feels the BAR Council of India should take the responsibility of drawing up proper regulations on the issue of allowing foreign law firms to practice in India. Bhasin is the managing partner of Bhasin & Company, and President of the Society of Indian Law Firms and the Bar Association of India. He was speaking at the BW Legal Summit at The Imperial in Delhi. 

“If the government is keen that foreign law firms should come here, there must be immediate steps to be taken by the BAR council of India as the responsibility of framing proper regulations,” says Bhasin. 

But Bhasin maintains that even today a foreign lawyer can be cleared with the permission of the courts. 

Bhasin says the Indian legal profession is much more distinct than the legal profession of other countries where it is no longer a profession but has virtually become a “business.” 

“Our culture is different, our Father of the Nation was a lawyer, our first Prime Minister was a lawyer, our first President was a lawyer, Deputy Prime Minister was a lawyer. So we have a heritage that the legal profession was always at the forefront for certain causes and in this case the cause was the struggle for freedom and that is where the legal profession played a big role,” says Bhasin. 

Old Debate 
India had its first conference in 1994 on the topic of allowing foreign law firms recalls Bhasin. “The history of this movement is going on with regard to foreign law firms to practice in India. The whole issue started in the early 1990’s when there was liberalization of the economy so then this movement started that there should be liberalization in the legal services,” he adds. 

He goes on to say that,” We had our first conference in 1994 just to discuss the issue of what we call the entry of foreign lawyers. The government was very keen that the legal services should be opened up. We allowed the entry of foreign law firms but mainly the Indian legal profession is much more distinct than you can see from the legal profession of other countries where it is no longer a profession but has virtually become a business.” 

India was ready since the early 90’s for the onslaught of foreign law firms coming into India. “From 1994 to 2014 we saw the emergence of law firms in India. These law firms were of competitively young people. They had some resources available. They were familiar with the technological advancing procedures that they had made and during a short period of 10 to 15 years the Indian legal firms were forced to be recognized. Even today the Indian legal profession is second to none in the world,” he says. 

“Despite the pending
litigation such as that of 2009 in which the Bombay High Court said that foreign lawyers have no right to practice in India and the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) allowed 3 to 4 large foreign law firms to set up their offices in Bombay and these law firms had taken over the entire floor of 5 star hotels such as Taj and Oberoi’s and were running their regular establishments,” says Advocate Bhasin.

Arbitration & Foreign Lawyers 
Bhasin says even in the arbitration proceedings the foreign lawyers have been free to practice in India, and they could fly in and fly out. “We have made it very clear and one of the representations we have made in response to the request made by the Department of Commerce, that we need to publicize, not advertise what are the strengths of our profession, what are the strengths of our law firms,” he says. 

Bhasin says in Singapore it has taken more than 30 years to come to the present stage. “And even today the number of the law firms who can be licensed is restricted. No one can have the rights to say that I will come an open a law firm,” he adds.