The move – launched at a New Delhi meeting of the National Bar Association of India – is the latest shot in a long-running battle between traditionalist forces and modernisers in the local legal profession. Countless court challenges have been launched against India’s hard line preventing the opening of foreign law firm branches, but they have been bogged down for years in the country’s labyrinthine appeal process.

No barriers

According to a report in the Hindustan Times, this week’s meeting – which coincided with national ‘law day’ -- called on the Indian government to amend the jurisdiction’s Advocates Act to allow foreign lawyers to crack the local market. The newspaper reported comments from Indian lawyer Sudish Sharma, who said bluntly: ‘Now is the era of globalisation and gone is the era of protectionism.’
He was supported by foreign lawyers at the meeting. ‘There should be no barriers for lawyers. They should be allowed to give their services anywhere in the world,’ James Duffy, representing the American Bar Association, told the meeting. ‘The change should come from inside and cannot be thrust upon from outside. Necessary legislative changes need to be done.’