The Inability To Advertise Is A Hindrance: Anirudh Rastogi, Founder, Ikigai

The current scenario of increasing digitisation and upcoming technologies presents various opportunities and challenges in front of emerging law firms and lawyers. At the first edition of BW Legal World Summit and Awards held in Delhi on Thursday, Anirudh Rastogi, Founder, Ikigai, Advocate Jayant Bhatt, Supreme Court of India, Arush Khanna, Partner and Team Leader, Commercial Dispute Resolution, Numen Law Office and Akhil Prasad, Director, Country Counsel India and Company Secretary, Boeing discussed just that.

Participating in the discussion Anirudh Rastogi of Ikigai said, “The inability to advertise is a hindrance to access to justice- where a potential client cannot find a right lawyer for his/her requirements.”  Talking about his firm Ikigai he added that they have a very strong focus on emerging technologies and tech businesses and even within the tech space the things they focus on is new business models in technology.

When asked whether he prefers boutique law firms or big law firms and how does one measure the capabilities of these two, Akhil Prasad of Boeing asserted that he was fundamentally against protection given to law firms, whether it is from barring foreign law firms to operate in India. There is constant competition from what was happening across the globe for all Indian law firms. He added that internal competition and appraisal makes them work harder and create more value.

Advocate Jayant Bhatt pointed out that the pulse of the business and the government regulations are important for young lawyers to know to better understand the challenges and opportunities.

Arush Khanna of Numen Law Office said, “It is a fantastic time to be a young lawyer because the kind of opportunities that are there now was not there 25 -30 years ago. There are so many avenues where lawyers can collaborate.” He further added that the lawyers also need to be incentivized to develop their practice and form associations. "The approach needs to be collected instead of a fragmented one," he said.