Business of Law
Mumbai High Court Bars Foreign Law Firms
The Mumbai High Court has ruled foreign law firms White & Case, Ashurst and Chadbourne & Parke should not have received licenses to operate in India, even for matters that don’t involve litigation.
The ruling affirms a 1995 interim decision, Bloomberg reports. The court’s new opinion said all lawyers in the country must be members of its bar councils.
White & Case and Chadbourne closed their Indian offices after the 1995 decision, but Ashurst had kept a New Delhi office to advise clients on government affairs, Bloomberg says. White & Case has an India practice based in Singapore.
Several major law firms have gotten around the ban by creating alliances with Indian firms, the Am Law Daily reports.
