With over 100,000 skilled workers expected to return to India over the next five years, the legal market looks set to receive an influx of talent.
Fresh from their experience with leading UK and US firms, ex-pat lawyers are either establishing new firms or helping to grow them. A burgeoning economy is convincing young lawyers that to leave India now is “foolish… the future lies here.” Many are now on the road to becoming India’s second generation of legal statesmen.
Indicative of this youthful optimism is Saionton Basu, 28, who practised for three years at White & Case’s London office before returning home to join emerging Indian firm Platinum Partners in March 2009. “I want to be the go-to lawyer for my practice area in India, by benchmarking to an international standard,” he says.
Like his contemporaries, Saionton is convinced he made the right decision. “This is where all the action is happening,” he says.
It is a popular refrain amongst many of the more established lawyers RSG talked to during research for the 2010 India Report. “The Indian market itself is very exciting – if you join a foreign law firm you don’t see the same kind of opportunity that you can do here,” commented one young partner.
Again Saionton proves to be a point in case. Within weeks of returning he was working on the proposed merger between Bharti Airtel and MTN. “It would have produced the third largest telecoms provider in the world, and although it fell through, it was a great learning experience,” he says.
It is not only the returning diaspora that is optimistic. Many lawyers who have stayed in India say the potential for growing with a domestic firm is regarded as preferential to gaining foreign experience. A large majority (81%) of the 25 hand-picked lawyers who make up RSG’s Second Generation selection, stated that they saw their careers developing in India.
With an ‘opportunity for creation’ in the current market, ambitious lawyers are loathe to miss out. New law firms start-up in India almost on a weekly basis and with good reason. For example, Platinum Partners which formed in 2008 already occupies the 23rd spot on the latest RSG Ranking table.
Many of the returning lawyers were critical of their experiences abroad. One interviewee said, “I don’t want to sit in an off-shore law firm simply advising on Indian issues and being the ‘India lawyer’.” One of the biggest deterrents to moving abroad are issues of work-life balance. As remuneration has increased in India, young professionals are enjoying an unprecedented quality of life. It’s the cherry on a cake of professional incentives to stay with the action.
INDIAN LAW FIRMS
"The action is here"
With over 100,000 skilled workers expected to return to India over the next five years, the legal market looks set to receive an influx of talent.
Fresh from their experience with leading UK and US firms, ex-pat lawyers are either establishing new firms or helping to grow them. A burgeoning economy is convincing young lawyers that to leave India now is “foolish… the future lies here.” Many are now on the road to becoming India’s second generation of legal statesmen.
Indicative of this youthful optimism is Saionton Basu, 28, who practised for three years at White & Case’s London office before returning home to join emerging Indian firm Platinum Partners in March 2009. “I want to be the go-to lawyer for my practice area in India, by benchmarking to an international standard,” he says.
Like his contemporaries, Saionton is convinced he made the right decision. “This is where all the action is happening,” he says.
It is a popular refrain amongst many of the more established lawyers RSG talked to during research for the 2010 India Report. “The Indian market itself is very exciting – if you join a foreign law firm you don’t see the same kind of opportunity that you can do here,” commented one young partner.
Again Saionton proves to be a point in case. Within weeks of returning he was working on the proposed merger between Bharti Airtel and MTN. “It would have produced the third largest telecoms provider in the world, and although it fell through, it was a great learning experience,” he says.
It is not only the returning diaspora that is optimistic. Many lawyers who have stayed in India say the potential for growing with a domestic firm is regarded as preferential to gaining foreign experience. A large majority (81%) of the 25 hand-picked lawyers who make up RSG’s Second Generation selection, stated that they saw their careers developing in India.
With an ‘opportunity for creation’ in the current market, ambitious lawyers are loathe to miss out. New law firms start-up in India almost on a weekly basis and with good reason. For example, Platinum Partners which formed in 2008 already occupies the 23rd spot on the latest RSG Ranking table.
Many of the returning lawyers were critical of their experiences abroad. One interviewee said, “I don’t want to sit in an off-shore law firm simply advising on Indian issues and being the ‘India lawyer’.” One of the biggest deterrents to moving abroad are issues of work-life balance. As remuneration has increased in India, young professionals are enjoying an unprecedented quality of life. It’s the cherry on a cake of professional incentives to stay with the action.
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