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Showing posts from October, 2015

'SIMON COME BACK' / FOREIGN LAW FIRMS IN INDIA

One of the most conspicuous and significant outcome of the process of globalization and liberalization has been the opening up of economies of evidently all the countries around the globe. There has been mounting pressure from members of the WTO for opening of the legal services sector in India. On the other hand, there has been a strong apprehension of the Bar Association of India and particularly the Bar Council of India in permitting foreign law firms to enter India as according to them, it may lead to the shrinking of opportunities available to the domestic lawyer. As India is a signatory to the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), it has an obligation to liberalise its legal sector. It has not been able to make much headway on this due to stiff opposition from Indian lawyers' representative bodies Bar Council of India (BCI) and Society of Indian Law Firms (SIFL) and legal cases against allowing foreign law firms to practice international law in India. The