Ques: With international financing severely crimped and billions of dollars worth of deals on the hold, the international legal industry is facing its worst crisis in decades because of the economic meltdown. How does AZB & Partners see itself in the market in terms of work being undertaken by the firm?
Ans: Fortunately, the severe economic downturn did not hit India as badly. Financing has slowed down by way of compensation on large matters that deal with financing though billings have increased due to increase in restructuring activities post the recession and also because of an increase in litigation especially since several contracts entered into have not been honoured.
Ques: As one of India’s largest law firms, how do you continue to attract and retain lawyers in the legal market?
Ans: One of the best perceived experiences that both young interns and lawyers have had during their stint at AZB has been in terms of passion that runs through the backbone of the firm. We also constantly transfer drill into the DNA of each AZB member, integrity and commitment.
Ques: According to you, what are the biggest challenges that a fully fleged law firm like yours faces?
Ans: One of AZB’s biggest challenges has been to set for ourselves each time, a higher benchmark in terms of quality. We are constantly looking out for updating our clients in case of any regulatory changes.
Ques: Last year, you had tied up with Clifford Chance in a ‘best friend’s’ agreement. Could you tell us more about this relationship and also about the training programme which Clifford Chance opened up for your firm?
Ans: Our tie up with Clifford Chance is that of a ‘best friend’. As far as the training programme is concerned, by opening up the training academy, Clifford Chance offers lawyers from AZB the ability to participate in various courses. This clearly helps youngsters from our firm as they benefit from professional schooling.
Ques: AZB is also involved in legal outsourcing as it is one of the founders of Bodhi Global which is an LPO providing high quality and low cost legal services to international law firms and companies. Being a fully fledged law firm, what made you start an LPO and don’t you think that one of the key challenges that lies before you is the lack of a regulatory framework for governing the outsourcing industry?
Ans: An LPO is more of a mixed bag which does not really provide legal advice but offers back office work for a foreign lawyer on a specific matter. As far as regulations are concerned, even Business Process Outsourcing companies (BPOs) are not governed by one and I don’t really see that as a challenge as yet.
Ques: Competition of ant-trust law as it is called in the United States is today one of the most emerging laws in India and also the areas for concern for corporates now that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has become fully functional. Can you tell us a little bit more about the competition law practice of AZB?
Ans: Most M&As and a lot of distribution agreements touch the Competition Act and I feel that once the provisions for combinations get notified by the CCI, then a huge sense of vigilance would be required. The competition laws in India have basically been taken from the competition laws of the EU (European Union). If the provisions for combinations are notified in the present form, it will slow down international activity and Indian Inc will lose its competitive advantage. Also, large industrial groups would be subject to this competition challenge. As far as the competition & anti-trust practice at AZB is concerned, we have got a steady practice which is growing day by day and this is evident from the fact that we were voted as one of the best law firms in this practice at the India Business Law Journal awards at Hong Kong in 2009.
|
