Is the hiring of senior foreign lawyers by Indian law firms a future trend?

By Shardul Shroff, Managing Partner, Amarchand Mangaldas

This time last year, Robert Lewis joined PRC firm Zhong Lun as international managing partner. Is there a trend in this which can strike roots in India?

In the Indian context, a law firm or its partners can engage with other persons, provided that they are registered and recognised as Indian lawyers. A partnership with a non-lawyer is, under the regulations applicable to the practice of law in India, prohibited.

Hence, a simple appointment of a foreign lawyer as an international managing partner or a partner sharing the profits of an Indian law firm appears difficult, if not impossible.

It is, however, common knowledge that duly qualified lawyers are able to become partners in Indian law firms while maintaining their licences or registrations as foreign lawyers in a foreign jurisdiction.

Similarly, there is no speaking order or decision that requires an Indian lawyer serving in a foreign law firm to surrender his Indian licence to practise during the period of engagement with a foreign law firm (which could be considered as being a non-lawyer for the purposes of Indian regulatory requirements).

The issue of whether a foreign registered lawyer can maintain his or her registration of a foreign bar while practising in the Indian bar as an Indian lawyer is undecided formally, except in those cases where specific foreign regulations make provisions for such situations.

Different legal systems like the common law system '¨or the civil law system have necessitated recognition of '¨only such lawyers as practice lawyers, which is akin to '¨Indian law for the practice of law in India. Reciprocity of jurisdictions and universities is required for registering '¨as an Indian lawyer after completing a foreign law degree '¨and qualifying and registering in a foreign jurisdiction as '¨a lawyer, or vice-versa.

A foreign lawyer who does not practise law in India, advise on Indian law or establish an attorney-client relationship can serve as an employee and provide his managerial capabilities to an Indian firm. Such services, when rendered by a foreign lawyer, are not for their legal skills or qualifications, but for their administrative and managerial capabilities, which are superior to those available in India.

There is no global unification of lawyers across all jurisdictions and only in a rule-based reciprocal basis are foreign lawyers recognised for registration as Indian lawyers in India.

At the same time, a foreign lawyer can always act as a foreign expert on foreign law for advance laws, which may be in the pipeline with new laws being created or legislated upon in India. Only in this narrow window and in the capacity as a foreign expert and non-lawyer for Indian purposes can a foreign lawyer settle in India to provide advisory services not constituting the practice of law in India.

It is likely to be a lifetime before foreign lawyers, whether in India or abroad, would be permitted to practise law in corresponding foreign jurisdictions which do not constitute the home jurisdictions in which the lawyer is registered to practise law.

shardul.shroff@amarchand.com