This month, ILJ’s Director, Vikrant Pachnanda spoke to
John Callagy, Chairman & Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP about the various challenges that face the US legal industry especially while dealing with the Indian legal system.

Ques: With international financing severely crimped and billions of dollars worth of deals on hold, the international legal industry is facing its worst crises in decades. How do you see yourself in the market during the current recession in terms of work being undertaken by the firm?

Ans: Firstly, I think the international legal industry, at least the New York legal industry, is beginning to take a turn for the better. I think the worst is behind us. While we don’t see the very large, large deals happening, we are beginning to see the mid cap transactions both outside the United States and within the United States. I think six months ago, everyone was concerned about where the bottom was. I’m currently quite optimistic about our prospects.

Ques: India is perceived to have a difficult legal system. What do you think is the greatest challenge that an overseas corporation which is doing business in India faces?

Ans: Well, I think, being from the United States, I’m used to difficult legal systems. I think the bigger problem in India is the amount of time that litigants face in the Indian legal system. India needs to decrease the amount of time in order to effectively and efficiently complete litigation proceedings.

Ques: One of the biggest challenges faced by a law firm is client retention. What are your views on that?

Ans:I think that it is easy to retain clients if you do good work for them. We’ve had clients that we’ve represented for the last 40-50 years. Obviously mergers can become a problem, then that becomes an issue but typically I feel that if you can retain the quality of service, we don’t find the retention of clients that much of a problem. I think billing is certainly a problem, in today’s environment, given the reality of your question number one. I think, law firms such as ours, are clearly negotiating the prior levels of hourly charges and I think everybody is trying to save legal expenses and the law firms are also looking for ways to save costs.

Ques: Don’t you feel that there is a need for greater awareness amongst Indian MNCs regarding US laws and more vigilance regarding US litigation practice?

Ans: We find that the big Indian companies that we deal with are very sophisticated. I think that the smaller Indian companies will not have the same level of experience with the United States, but I do think that most of Indian big multinational companies are very aware of the issues that they face while doing business in the US.

Ques: Being one of the top ten foreign law firms, how do you continue to attract and retain lawyers in the legal market?

Ans: It’s always a challenge. We look for good people and we increase the scope of our professional groups. It is probably one of the biggest problems that we face in terms of growth. You can’t just grow without having the right people. In fact, I think the recession is causing people to fewer moves from law firms as they used to make. People are more reluctant to leave their firm and therefore it is more difficult to attract lateral talent.

Ques: Don’t you feel that India’s enforcement regime needs urgent reforms as the lack of proper enforcement may be a stumbling block for India’s economic success and growth?

Ans: Indeed, India does have many statutes and requirement, but if you have those requirements then you need to enforce them. To the extent, they are not enforced that creates the problem in the people becoming cynical about the need to follow those regulations.