No plan to open India office in short to medium term: Ashurst Global CEO Paul Jenkins

Ashurst Global CEO Paul Jenkins and his team of partners were recently visiting India.

Jenkins leads the firm's Executive Team and is a member of the firm's Board. He has been a partner since 2006 and led the firm's global Finance Division before his appointment as global CEO in 2016. In late 2022, Jenkins was reappointed global CEO for a further four-year term and will lead the firm as Co-CEO of the proposed combined firm, Ashurst Perkins Coie. 

Bar & Bench's Pallavi Saluja caught up with Jenkins in Mumbai, where the firm also hosted a reception for clients and friends.

In this interview, Jenkins speaks about the firm's India plans, clarifications needed from the Bar Council of India (BCI) regarding the entry of foreign lawyers and firms, the use of AI and its impact on the firm and more.

Edited excerpts follow.

Pallavi Saluja (PS): What are Ashurst’s India plans?

Paul Jenkins (PJ): Our plans in India are about having strength across the rest of the world to serve our Indian clients and our clients looking to enter India who need our assistance globally. It's about us having a very strong global firm to serve our Indian clients' needs.

We don't intend to open an office in India in the short to medium term. Our focus is on our existing relationships that we have here in India, hence my visit this week. Regarding our service to Indian clients, it's through people like Shishir Mehta, who heads our India practice globally and is based in London. Ultimately, it's about our relationships in the Indian market.

We obviously look closely at developments in terms of the liberalisation of the legal market here in India and we would not be looking to open an office until three conditions are met. Firstly, there would need to be significantly greater clarity from the BCI in terms of the ability for a foreign firm like ours to have access to the market. Secondly, there needs to be clarity in relation to the tax position for foreign firms, and finally, considering our existing strong relationships with a range of local firms, there needs to be a very good business reason for us to do it.

At the moment, none of those conditions are satisfied.

PS: How important is the India jurisdiction for the firm?

PJ: It's incredibly important. I came in late last night from Tokyo. I spend a lot of time in both London and Sydney, which are our largest offices. At the moment, we have over 30 offices globally, and with our proposed combination, we will have 52 offices in 23 countries, including a significant presence on the West and East Coasts of the US. Many of our clients around the world have an interest in or are already active in the Indian market. I was speaking to one of our financial services clients in Tokyo yesterday about India, and they've just gone out and surveyed their client base in Japan – asking "where are you looking to invest, what are your business needs?"  India ranked number one in terms of markets of interest for investment, and the US ranked number two.

India is a major area of interest among our clients and the opportunities are immense. So we need to have the strongest capability and a differentiated proposition for our India clients. The benefit of having deep US capability, and what we talk about with Perkins Coie, is the three sectors that we are strong in – and will be even stronger in as a combined firm - which are well aligned to our India client base, being Tech, Energy and Infrastructure, and Financial Services. That's what we are known for globally. And there's a convergence of work across these three sectors, globally, and for our Indian clients – for example, with fintech, digital infrastructure or data centres.

PS: Ashurst had a non-exclusive “best friend” referral arrangement with Indian Law Partner (ILP). Does that still continue?

PJ: We have deep relationships now with a number of firms. ILP remains an important firm to us, as do a number of other firms with which we've developed relationships. First, with Shishir, and also through our other partners involved in the market.

PS: Ashurst hired two senior lawyers in 2024 - Kalpana Unadkat and Shishir Mehta - to boost the India practice. Is there a plan to hire more Indian senior lawyers?

PJ: I should start by saying that Shishir has been hugely successful in galvanising and leading our global India practice. We have a big client event tonight and a number of our partners from different offices and practices around the world are attending. That's how we operate, and it's about bringing our capability from around the world for our Indian clients.

Yes, I'd love to have more Indian lawyers on that team, because that's the best way we can serve our clients. Whether it's in London, Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East or in Australia, those who are interested in joining our team and have the capability and alignment with our practice areas, we'd welcome them. 

We have one of our exceptional dual-qualified Indian lawyers here tonight – Harsh Hari Haran from our London disputes team.

Given the brilliant skills and expertise Indian lawyers have around the world, we see this as an opportunity to continue growing and strengthening our team.

PS: Like you mentioned, you would want some clarifications from the BCI. Many global firms have expressed concerns about the fees and other issues. So what are your major concerns with the BCI Rules and what kind of clarifications would you need from them?

PJ: As I say, we are not looking to enter the market in the short to medium term. But the fly-in and fly-out arrangements - they are expensive, they are complex in terms of compliance. We would like to see these simplified. The reason is that it allows us to play the role of a global firm working with local firms to serve Indian clients and global multinationals with interests in India.

So I think the more that can be simplified, with greater clarity around the tax position for global firms as well, then that will obviously assist us with what we are seeking to do in the market – and ultimately be better for business all round.

PS: Coming to tech, Ashurst became the first global law firm to get Harvey on board across the entire firm. How have you seen a change in the work style? What changes have you seen in two years?

PJ: We made a conscious decision back in 2024 to roll out Harvey right across the firm, including our 2,000 lawyers, and, as you say, we were the first firm to do that.

Why did we do that? We really wanted to get our people entrenched in using AI and thinking about prompts and ways they could bring AI to our clients – leaning into the disruption rather than being disrupted by it. We now see that 90% of our lawyers have been trained, 70% are regularly using AI in their legal services and day-to-day work and 25% are using it daily. So there's still some work to get that up higher. We can see the benefits of using tools like Harvey. We can see how regularly it's being used. These and other Gen AI tools have transformed our ability to service our clients' work with AI.

What we're seeing now is a greater degree of sophistication from our clients. Rather than asking, "Are you using AI?", they're now asking, "How are you using it? How is it improving the efficiency of the work you're doing for us?" In almost every pitch we make, we are asked how AI will be used as part of the legal services we provide.

It is about embedding AI into everyday work and getting lawyers thinking how it can create greater efficiency for our clients. The impact over the past two years has been significant. Timeframes are compressed in relation to AI, so I would hesitate to talk about what happens over the next two years. It's more like the next six months, nine months, or twelve months. Adoption will continue to be exponential. Having our lawyers in a position where they're leaning into the disruption is a lot better than being disrupted.

PS: How do you see AI affecting associate-level hiring? Are you already seeing a decline in the number of associate-level hires?

PJ: We're not seeing a cut as such because we are growing as a firm and continuing to expand across each of our markets.

There will undoubtedly be significant changes to law firms' business models. I expect that, for firms that continue to grow, they will still be bringing on as many associates but will be looking for different skills. So what we're looking for is the lawyer's ability to use AI to augment their work. You need lawyers who think that way, who are tech-trained, or who are open to and used to using AI in their day-to-day work. So it will mean different types of lawyers, including more data analysts and digitally-focused lawyers. It changes the nature of legal work.

At the moment, however, we're not seeing that there's a reduction in the number of associates that we're hiring.

PS: About the Perkins Coie - Ashurst merger, how does it change the entire firm? Do they also have a similar strategy for India?

PJ: Perkins Coie are very interested in what we will do together in India. The starting point is our sector focus. The three sectors - Tech, Energy and Infrastructure, and Financial Services – will be core. Perkins Coie are very strong in tech and act for many of the largest US tech companies. As you'd expect, they have regular dealings and a strong interest in India, given the tech, fintech and digital asset opportunities in this market. The combined firm will be very well placed to be able to service our clients' needs in India.

We announced the proposed combination on the 17th of November. So it's been busy period since then. I've spent a lot of time in the US and talking with our partners and people about what we are proposing. The reaction has been very positive, and there has been a lot of excitement among our partners and staff. Most importantly, the client response has been uniformly positive as to what we are doing.

The next stage is a partner vote, which will take place over the next few months. We expect the combination to then be effective this calendar year. Given the strong client response, it's been a successful period of engagement to date. We will be among the top 20 law firms in the world by revenue, with a clearly differentiated proposition.

One thing that's very similar between the two firms is culture. We've already talked about GenAI, and Perkins Coie is also known for its tech enablement and innovative ways of working. The combination delivers three things for our clients and people: a clear sector focus; a commitment to innovation; and a compelling proposition for global talent, centred on being the best place to work. Together, I think that creates a powerful and differentiated offering in the global legal market.