BCI — Rules for Registration and Regulation of Foreign Lawyers and Foreign Law Firms in India, 2022

1. A foreign lawyer or law firm shall be entitled to practice in India (with restrictions) when registered with the Bar Council of India from now on.

2. Registration process for foreign lawyers —

• Involves certification, background diligence in the form of declarations of offenses and convictions.
• Certification from the respective foreign equivalent of BCI and requisition of subsequent NOCs. And a lot of other documents specified in Chapter III.

3. Registration not necessary to foreign lawyer or foreign law firm in case—

1. Such practice is done on a ‘fly in and fly out basis’. 

What does it mean? 

i) Legal advice given to the client in India regarding foreign law and on diverse international legal issues, wherein;

ii) Lawyer/ law firm does not maintain an office in India, and

iii) He/ she does not stay for  periods which exceed 60 days in any period of 12 months for the purpose of fly in fly out advice.

4. Foreign lawyer/law firms can —

• Undertake transactional, IPR, contractual work on a reciprocal basis.

Reciprocal basis means only applicable to jurisdictions where an Indian lawyer can also practice law shall be allowed to obtain the license to practice in India. For example, King's Counsels (UK) & Senior Counsels (Singapore) - referred to as Designated Advocates - will get preference and priority over others. 

• Advise on issues of foreign law of their principal qualification.
• Advise clients from the jurisdictions of their principal qualifications whether or not foreign law is involved. 

5. Foreign lawyer/law firms cannot —

• Appear before any court, tribunals or other statutory or regulatory authorities.
• Be involved or permitted to do any work pertaining to conveyancing of property, title investigation or other similar works.
• However, in case of an International Arbitration for an entity registered outside of India, if the arbitration is taking place in India, foreign legal entities can appear for such arbitration, whether the law is foreign or not. 

6. An Indian registered lawyer who decides to join these foreign law firms CANNOT appear before Indian courts for these foreign law firms. They can only do non-litigious work in these firms.

7. Registration Fees —

USD 25,000 for individuals, and 

USD 50,000 for law firms

Validity = 5 years. 

Renewal fee = USD 10,000 for individuals, and

USD 20,000 for law firms

Clarification issued in a Press Release dated 19.03.2023 —

• Foreign lawyers / Law Firms are allowed to advise their clients about "Foreign laws" and international laws only.
• The advisory work rendered by them about the above mentioned laws would be for their foreign clients only.
• Foreign lawyers / law firms would be allowed to function only in non-litigation areas.
• They would not be allowed to appear before Courts / Tribunals / Statutory authorities / regulatory bodies (or any forum entitled to take evidence on oath)
• They would be allowed to appear for clients in International Commercial Arbitration
• Entry of foreign lawyers of only those countries would be permitted in India where Indian lawyers are also permitted to practice. (Reciprocal basis).

IMPLICATIONS

A. For Indian Legal Economy —

•  The main idea seems to be for making India the hub of international arbitration - something where the Indian legal sector hasn’t stepped in yet. Major arbitrations choose ICA, Paris, LCIA, London or SIAC, Singapore for their disputes. This can open avenues for India to be a trending arbitration destination as a seat for arbitration by a foreign client.

Grey area - 

Definition of 'International Commercial Arbitration' stipulates that only a dispute arising from 'commercial transactions that are conducted in India' will be permitted. This qualification of the underlying transaction to be in India seems restrictive if we were to make India an arbitration hub.

B. For Domestic Law Firms —

• Indian law firms can practice law as limited liability partnerships (LLPs), which unlike regular partnerships are juristic entities. Foreign firms in best friend relations would still trust the Indian LLPs for their major work since they have an edge in understanding local laws.
• Work related to Contract drafting might be outsourced to foreign law firms by bigger in-house teams due to their credibility. This might take some work from smaller and boutique law firms.
• Compensation wars between the firms internally shall be accelerated again like how it happened when Amarchand split up.

C. For Foreign Law Firms —

• Owing to the huge registration cost, bigger global law firm players would like to start by opening smaller offices and see if it is expandable. It does not make sense for them to earn in rupees and spend in dollars when their cost-benefit ratio is not a lot.
• The exorbitant registration cost, and relatively little difference between the cost for a foreign lawyer and a foreign law firm, seems to suggest that the intent is to allow primarily foreign law firms, not individual foreign lawyers, to enter India.
• Law firms based in Singapore, UAE, UK, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and even Canada would be the first movers to set up their offices given the amount of work they have been referring to Indian law firms over the years.
• Pricing will get a boost for international work owing to the ability to  match with what a foreign law firm will charge for the similar transactional mandate.
• There will be significant fee increases even for domestic Indian law work. Quality will win over Quantity.
• Innovation - Law firms would realize the need to adopt more innovative ways to get the work done, as with the international firms.

D. For Lawyers —

• Physical offices of foreign firms - more job opportunities in foreign firms for the Indian law graduates would be created in a few years.
• In the coming years, rules will change and expand to accommodate foreign lawyers. This can be a disadvantage if Indian lawyers continue working in the traditional method.
• A strong personal brand is the absolute necessity for a lawyer now.  
• Now is the time to be a dual qualified lawyer since the hard work would pay off when the competition intensifies.
• More training contracts for law students.

E. For Management teams in Law firms —

• Marketing — The rules do not specify advertising restrictions on foreign law firms in India. Visibility, international relations and goodwill will be a key business determinant now for all the Indian law firms.
• Talent acquisition — Fiercer competition in hiring. The mid-level transactional lawyer hiring is already a difficult mandate, and this would just intensify their demand to supply ratio owing to a lot of them moving to foreign law firms.
• Innovation — Now is the time to invest more in innovation and legal tech owing to the competition that would come from foreign law firms who already have well-established understanding of legal technology in their systems.
• The rules are silent about best-friend arrangements (& nuances thereof) with Indian firms, it nonetheless permits foreign firms to 'procure the legal expertise/advice on Indian law from Indian qualified lawyers. The relationships would need to be nurtured with the already established foreign lawyers for them to keep referring work.