India loosens restrictions on foreign lawyers

Protracted legal battles are common in India. One of the longest-running of all concerns who is allowed to practise law in the country. On March 10th the Bar Council of India quietly released an announcement that, though armed with inevitable caveats, removed some of the restrictions that have for decades kept most foreign lawyers from plying their trade on Indian soil. “With this, the legal practice of India enters a new era,” says Vyapak Desai of Nishith Desai Associates, a rare Indian law firm with offices abroad.Since independence in 1947 India has, in the name of self-sufficiency, created barriers to entry for outsiders in many industries. As elsewhere in the world, the legal profession was deemed particularly sensitive. So sensitive that, in 1961, the Advocates Act required all lawyers to be Indian citizens. At the urging of the central bank, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of 1973 created an exemption. Foreigners were still barred from representing clients in courtrooms but they could advise them on things like contracts and mergers. By the 1990s a handful of foreign firms had set up shop in India, including giants like White & Case, a big New York firm.