BCI should allow foreign lawyers to act in occasional cases without registration: Samuel Townend KC

Chair-elect of the Bar Council of England and Wales and King’s Counsel (KC) Samuel Townend on Saturday suggested that the Bar Council of India (BCI) loosen its regulations governing the practice of foreign lawyers and law firms in India for the benefit of individual barristers who only come in for the occasional case. .The BCI, in March 2023, came out with rules for the registration and regulation of foreign lawyers and foreign law firms in India, to enable international lawyers and arbitration practitioners to advise in India..Townend opined that the proposed registration process in these regulations was tedious for foreign lawyers who do not intend to settle permanently in India for practice.“The Bar Council (England and Wales) would like to see the BCI regulations loosen in one respect so that individual foreign advocates who are not intending to establish permanently in India but simply wish to act on a case by-case basis on a fly-in fly-out basis do not have to undergo the full rigmarole of registration and the complexity, time and cost that it entails. Speaking frankly, the proposed registration process at the moment as drafted, is practically speaking uncommercial for individual barristers and King’s Counsel who only wish to act in the occasional international arbitration in India.".He suggested that individual lawyers from England and Wales should be permitted to act in dispute resolution processes that are not based in courts sans registration.“We (Bar Council of England and Wales) would wish to see, as for Indian lawyers in London, on a fully reciprocal basis, individual lawyers could simply fly in to act for the international or domestic party in India in non-court-based dispute resolution processes such as Indian-seated international arbitration without the need for registration,” Townsend explained..Townend went on to clarify,“We would like to clarify that we are not interested in competing with Indian law firms or their clients. As we do the world over, we simply want to be able to work with Indian lawyers to help them, help their clients, in domestic seated international arbitration and other alternative dispute resolution processes.".Townsend was speaking at the International Lawyers' Conference organised by the BCI in Delhi over the last weekend. He was one of the panelists in a session concerning Alternative Dispute Resolution in International Transactions. During his address, he also listed the factors which could make India a sought-after arbitration hub in the world. These factors included having a common law system, the use of English along with other regional languages and having experienced domestic senior advocates, some of whom had joined London chambers to practice international arbitration..The chair for the event was the Supreme Court's Justice Hima Kohli, who suggested that there should be a specialised arbitration bar of lawyers, which will promote arbitration as a niche field of expertise. She suggested that if lawyers are specially trained on every facet of the arbitration process, it would boost domestic and international confidence in India as an arbitration hub. The judge also emphasized that the Indian judiciary and legislature were making it clear that as per the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, the former was to have minimum interference in final arbitral awards in order to speed up enforcement..Senior Advocates Darius Khambata, CU Singh, Rakesh Khanna and Promod Nair also addressed the gathering on areas of arbitration and mediation..[Read live coverage of the event]