'NOT OPPOSED TO FOREIGN LAW FIRMS, BUT ADVOCATES ACT NEEDS TO BE AMENDED'

A towering legal luminary, Lalit Bhasin, helms one of the largest law firms in north India, Bhasin & Co. In an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld Chairman and Editorin-Chief Annurag Batra, he explains how the Indian legal ecosystem has evolved over the years, incrementally moving towards opening the doors to foreign law firms. Excerpts:

- Annurag Batra

How did the idea of the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) come about?

The idea came in the mid-1990s when liberalisation happened. It all started with law firms. By the year 1999 we had a galaxy of good emerging law firms. At that point of time a threat came which was there from 1994, when I was the general secretary of the Bar Association of India and Fali Sam Nariman was the president, when for the first time the government brought in the move to bring in foreign lawyers. This was opposed by the Bar Association because we knew that the Indian legal profession is not yet ready to face that competition.

In 1999, some of the managing partners of law firms and I had a meeting and the idea of setting up such a society was mooted. In the world, there is no organisation which has only law firms as members. They asked me to preside over this institution. So this was inaugurated in the year 2000 by the president of the International Bar Association.

Arun Jaitley addressed us and said that we will have full safeguards if foreign lawyers come to India. But, the legal profession should not oppose it. But we kept on opposing it till 2014. When I noticed that the Society of Indian Law Firms had nearly 80 firms on its rolls I knew that now we can face the challenge which can come because we are second to none in terms of resources, technology, and competence.