MUMBAI: Foreign law companies including UK’s magic circle firms are strengthening their India desks by adding experienced dealmakers in Singapore and London, as building investor confidence towards India is expected to drive cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
Market experts say they see deal activity picking up with companies exploring M&A as well as fundraising opportunities, as the economy is projected to turn around after two years of sub-5% growth.
Foreign firms are hunting for Indian lawyers with dual-qualifications – qualification to work in India and abroad. Indian regulations prohibit foreign firms from having an office in India or advising on Indian law. They, however, can do this in cooperation with the Indian bar and work with Indian law firms.
“We’ve observed a small, but encouraging trend of professionals move to magic circle firms at the junior to mid-level,” said Lee Ignatius of Vahura, a legal search, recruiting and consulting firm. “Given the change in the government and the new budget, we hope to see these numbers rise.”
The top five commercial law firms in the UK – Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May – are referred to as magic circle firms because of their global spread, the large number of lawyers they employ and revenue.
“Vahura is receiving increasing number of queries from top US and UK firms looking to hire Indian talent for their India practices,” Ignatius said.
Nilufer von Bismarck, one of the two partners responsible for the India desk at law firm Slaughter and May, said it gets India-related queries across a number of practice areas and industries. “We are seeing a steady increase in work coming out of or related to India and share the optimism of clients and others in the UK that such work will continue.”
According to a 2013 report of London-based RSG Consulting, the India’s commercial legal market was worth $1.07 billion based on the external legal expenses of the ET 500 Indian companies. The figure represented a 43% increase compared with three years earlier, or an average 13% growth each year — a modest rise compared with India’s economic growth and inflation over the same period.
UK-based Clifford Chance, whose India practice stretches back to more than five decades, confirmed the trend of increased capital market activities.
“We expect to see a continued high level of capital markets activity, as well as foreign investment flows into India over the next six to 12 months,” said Sue Warner, marketing and communications manager for Asia Pacific. “Since the elections, we have seen a surge in capital markets activity. Indian companies are keen to raise capital to reinvigorate themselves, particularly in infrastructure projects, telecoms and aviation. International investors including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors are equally bullish on the prospects of Indian growth.”
Recently, Clifford Chance had advised GMR Infrastructure in raising $246 million by selling shares to institutions in the US.
A senior partner of a US-based law firm said his was looking for at least 10 Indian lawyers with 5-to-7 years of experience and dual qualifications in India as well as in US or UK. “This new team will be spread across the geographies, but mainly work from our Singapore and London offices,” he said.
He didn’t want him or his company to be named because that could jeopardise the firm’s on-going hiring process.
Meanwhile, Sarosh Zaiwalla, senior partner at Zaiwalla & Co, the first law firm to have started by an Indian in the UK, said there was a considerable increase in British companies wanting to start business in India. “Realistically, it will however take a few months for the interest to be converted into real start of business by these British companies in India,” said Zaiwala, who’s firm’s India desk has five lawyers.
“We have seen a sharp increase in outbound work from India, given the exponential growth of Indian corporate houses, as also Indian entrepreneurs who have with the support of our practice and expertise have started working and instructing foreign law firms,” said Sameer Tapia, founder & senior partner of ALMT Legal, a firm that was started in UK which now has offices also in Mumbai and Bangalore.
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*Information taken from the India Times*