Business | Big law in India

India loosens restrictions on foreign lawyers

For real this time?

2CWJGXY A lawyer speaks on his mobile phone as he walks past India's Supreme Court in New Delhi April 1, 2013. India's highest court, the Supreme Court, has dismissed Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG's petition seeking patent protection for its cancer drug Glivec, a serious blow to Western pharmaceutical firms which are increasingly focusing on India to drive sales. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS HEALTH CRIME LAW) — Big law hopes to blossom there, tooImage: Alamy

Mar 23rd 2023|Mumbai

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.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “The cost of legal admission”