Simmons & Simmons’ Mark Dawkins is the latest managing partner of a UK-headquartered firm to go door-knocking on the subcontinent.
His itinerary will take him to law schools, with which Simmons wants to reinforce ties to entice smart Indian graduates to London, and also to Indian law firms.
Simmons currently uses around 10 Indian firms for referral work, and in the next couple of weeks it’s Dawkins’ task to refine that number down to two or three. The idea is to build more meaningful relationships with a chosen few in preparation for liberalisation, if and when ithappens.
The slight problem with the plan is that the top 10 firms in India are currently being courted by every Western firm with an overseas strategy, however vague.
We wonder which nifty steps those firms are going to have to take to impress the Indian elite enough to get them on their dancecards.
