CC's Popham predicts UK firms will enter India within two years
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Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham has said he expects UK law firms to have a presence in India within two years, as long as a free trade agreement with the EU is signed.
Stuart Popham
Popham said: “If I said 18 months I would probably be optimistic, if I said two and a half years I would be unduly pessimistic.”
He added that the prediction was dependant on India easing some of its current trading restrictions.
“If in six months’ time or 12 months’ time none of the restrictions on banking, on insurance, on legal services, on cross-border investment, if the free trade agreement with the EU hasn’t been signed, then I think there would be room to harbour doubts as to what it is going to take to pursue the Indian avowed policy of liberalisation,” he said.
Last December, an Indian court upheld a ruling prohibiting foreign firms establishing offices (19 December 2009), forcing Ashurst, Chadbourne & Parke and White & Case to close their liaison offices in the jurisdiction.
Clifford Chance is one of 31 foreign firms that could also be prevented from sending lawyers to India to provide advice if a move to extend the ban is approved by a court in Chennai next week.
Popham was speaking in New Delhi where he was part of a business delegation accompanying UK Prime Minister David Cameron on his first visit to the subcontinent since the general election (27 July 2010).
Readers' comments (3)
Anonymous | 30-Jul-2010 11:37 am
I am waiting for that day to come soon. Have been waiting a long time, though still managing to do a lot of Indian related work in London!
I know I echo the thoughts of many other Indian lawyers in London (and increasingly in Singapore..)
Worse work-life balance but a lot of financial reward (beleive me my peers in India are earning much more than what I am in London).
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Kieran | 30-Jul-2010 11:27 pm
Amazing how the table has turned. Now UK law firm begging to enter India. Mindblowing.
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Rajeev Mishra | 11-Feb-2011 5:46 am
In my opinion, unless Indian Lawyers get adequate protection similar to what is being provided to English lawyers in the UK, Indian lawyers will not let foreign lawyers do even consultancy work in India.
It needs radical overhaul of existing laws in India regulating legal practice.
Lawyers in UK or India should not restrict themselves from cross-border legal work, when they can legally hire the services of each other.
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