Indian legal market to open up to foreign law firms

India is to press ahead with liberalising the country’s legal services market to allow foreign lawyers the right to operate in the jurisdiction.

The news was announced by Chancellor George Osborne, who met with India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley this week.

The Treasury and Foreign Office said the move “will act as a catalyst for international investment in India and give businesses the access they need to international legal advice. It will also bring new opportunities for the UK profession, who will benefit from being offered similar rights to those that Indian firms already enjoy in the UK, allowing them to enter partnerships with Indian firms and bring their specialist expertise to India.”

Mr Osborne said: “The agreements we’ve made today are another important step in deepening economic ties between Britain and India.

“Working together across infrastructure and financial services we will be able to solve key shared challenges which will help us create growth in both of our economies.

“I want to thank Arun and his team for travelling to London and for making today’s talks a success, as we bring our two great economies closer together.”

In November last year India’s secretary at the Ministry of Law and Justice,PK Malhotra, suggested at an event on Chancery Lane that liberalisation was likely to happen.

He said: “We have been working on this since 1992. But I think now a stage has come where there is a consensus across all participants. There is no way we can look back. We have to look forward.”