Globetrotting Law Firms

Asian Journal of Legal Education, 2019

The Indian Legal Profession in the Age of Globalization: The Rise of Corporate Legal Sector and Its Impact on Lawyers and Society. Edited by David B. Wilkins, Vikramaditya S. Khanna, and David M. Trubek, Cambridge University Press, New Delhi, 2018 (South Asian Edition). xv + 756 pp., (Paperback), ₹895. ISBN: 978-1-108-44487-3

Despite the importance of globalization for Indian lawyers, there have been surprisingly few attempts to integrate the rich scholarship on the processes of globalization with the sociology of the Indian legal profession, and to conceptualize and explain major recent legal developments in India in this context. This article uses three globalization processes – economic globalization, globalization of knowledge and globalization of governance – as lenses for analyzing the Indian legal profession. It argues that understanding these processes and their intersections can help frame a much-needed empirical investigation into the globalization of the legal profession in India, and possibly in other major emerging economies.

IJCRT - International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts (IJCRT), 2020

No generation has had the opportunity, as we now have, to build a global economy that leaves no-one behind. It is a wonderful opportunity, but also a profound responsibility." -Mr. Bill Clinton Globalization had an impact on almost all the prevailing professions in the country and its history with legal profession has been more or less of a dynamic and a positive one. The legal profession was regarded as a dynamic field of work even before the concept of globalization but after the forthcoming changes that globalization brought with itself the dynamics of the legal profession shifted towards a more connected and interlocked profession. This research paper might not be the Alpha to Omega of the impact of globalization on the Indian legal profession, but it will focus on the following questions-what was the impact of globalization on Indian legal professionals? What are the views of the Indian Judiciary on India lawyers working with foreign firms? This paper will also discuss the amount of liberty available to foreign legal firms to enter India.

Taylor & Francis Online, 2024

in contemporary legal india, it is critical to obtain a deeper understanding of the preexisting structure of legal Practice in india. while exploring post-1991 change, we must also understand the impact of liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization, particularly Globalization toward law practice in india. law practice, predominantly litigation, and corporate law firms, has a significant impact on india's socioeconomic as well as political structure. Besides, such a deeper understanding not only provides the context of the topic, theme, or purpose but also assists in constructing a relatively common factual or analytical base. this analytical and deep understanding shared by many of the prominent legal dignitaries, which can be found common, helps to understand and interpret the law in a better way. in light of this, the growth in the legal profession has been impressive, but the ground realities should not be stayed untouched. this review article has endeavored to modify the typology of the indian legal Profession. the base has been relied upon in the uS corporate legal market. the reasons were that western corporate firms and in-house legal departments were the first to develop and are generally acclaimed as being the best in the world. Second, even indian lawyers who prefer not to adopt the American model often define their approach in opposition to the American model, making the comparison more relevant. third, given india's increasing interactions with the global marketplace, indian law firms, their employees, and their clients are likely to have more direct exposure to uS and uK corporate law firms and legal departments. Finally, to the extent that the new corporate legal market in india has developed in part in perceptions about the Anglo-American corporate legal market, changes in the latter market may foretell changes that will affect the indian legal market in the coming years. this is particularly of interest because some of the realignment of corporate legal services markets in the united States and the united Kingdom are precipitated by globalization-which is one of the key drivers of change in the indian legal market and its future.

The legal profession in India does not seem to have any significant entry barriers as are prevalent in other sectors in India. Yet litigation fails to attract talented law graduates, except those who have a parental/family background in litigation. Litigation in India is marked by the presence of small and middle-size family-run law firms who employ law graduates as juniors and may fall short of world class corporate culture. On the other hand, it is rare for a fresh law graduate to become an entrepreneur-style practitioner on their own, right after college. This is in contrast with other sectors where graduates with degrees can take a bank loan and can start an enterprise. This paper reviews the regulatory framework of how legal barriers with noble intentions makes the sustainability of new entrants almost impossible in the legal profession and thus discourage new entrants from choosing litigation as a career after college. These barriers, though not entry barriers in a strict sense, are operational barriers and include: a) restrictions on the legal form of a law firm; b) a ban on advertising; c) a ban on charging a contingent fee; d) a ban on moonlighting. The paper also looks at moral hazard associated with self-regulatory bodies viz. the Bar Council of India and the State Bar Councils. Finally, the paper makes a case for reforms in the form of doing away with restrictions to lay down a level-playing field for all practitioners and foster competition.

The Indian Legal Profession in the Age of Globalization

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2016

UnITeD sTATes AnD InDIA sAROsh kURUvILLA AnD eRnesTO nOROnhA* In this article, the authors argue that offshoring of legal work from the United states has contributed to the fracturing of the longestablished internal labor market arrangements in large U.s. law firms. Drawing on evidence from the United states and India on legal employment, the growth of offshoring, and the rapidly changing nature of work that is offshored, the authors contend that the changes in employment systems in law firms are likely to be permanent, in contrast to other researchers who suggest they are temporary adjustments to the financial crisis. As U.s. law firms are dismantling their internal labor market systems, Indian law firms are partially recreating them. T he legal services industry and the U.s. labor market for lawyers is changing, especially after the financial crisis. both the academic and the trade literatures (e.g., henderson 2008a; bull and Furlong 2011) have highlighted a number of key trends. These include the sharp declines in revenues and profitability after the financial crisis, law firm bankruptcies, changes in business practices to reduce costs through technological solutions (e.g., e-discovery software), and the rise of new low-cost firms such as LegalZoom that specialize in the web-based delivery of legal services. Attention has focused particularly on the layoffs of lawyers for the first time in half a century, the deferments in lawyer hiring, and the overall declines in industry employment. Finally, some researchers have focused on the consequences for labor and education markets, notably increased discontent among current law *sarosh kuruvilla is a Professor at cornell University. ernesto noronha is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management. we thank John Flood, Diane burton, Tashlin Lakhani, Premilla D'cruz, and participants of seminars at cornell, Rutgers, Penn state, University of california-Los Angeles (UcLA), warwick, and the London school of economics and Political science (Lse) for helpful comments, and brittany heiman, Ranga kanthadai, Paulo Ferreira, and Jinyoung Park for research assistance. we also thank anonymous reviewers and an ILR Review editor for helpful feedback. Interview transcripts, suitably redacted to keep our informants anonymous, can be made available to interested readers

University of California Press eBooks, 2021

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

The law of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is not autonomous. It shapes and is shaped. It affects not only countries" trade and tariff policies, but also shapes their laws, regulations and institutions. In particular, it creates new accountability mechanisms with particular normative frames, and opens markets creating new demand for professional expertise, such as legal expertise. The WTO institutionalizes capitalism, and thus provides opportunities directly and indirectly for business lawyers. Yet it does not do so in a uniform manner. Rather, nation-states, working with private constituents, negotiate the terms of WTO law and shape its meaning, whether directly through engagement, or indirectly through lack of engagement.