Indian, foreign law firms can exchange skills: David Lammy

PASSING THROUGH

In June 2000, when David Lammy, the tall Afro-Caribbean barrister, took his seat in the British House of Commons, Labour MPs cheered the 'baby of the Commons'. He was only 27 then.

Today, as the UK's Constitutional Affairs Minister, Lammy is spearheading his government's drive to globalise the UK's legal practice, after World Trade Organisation rules come into force in April 2005.

Lammy was in India last week meeting the minister of state for law and justice, the attorney general, the chief justice of the Mumbai High Court and a host of lawyers. His agenda was simple: sound them on the possibility of letting British law firms establish a presence in India.

"We've got very close contact between our senior judiciaries and many Indian lawyers have trained or worked in Britain. So, I have been exploring this important issue of the liberalisation of Indian legal services," says Lammy.

Lammy became the first Afro-Briton to acquire a Masters in Law at Harvard Law School, specialising in medical ethics, negligence and commercial litigation.

One of five children raised by a single mother in Tottenham, England, Lammy is said to have sold himself as a "local boy made good," during his election campaign.

"I know exactly what it's like to grow up disadvantaged in this community," he then said. Having read law at the School of Oriental and African Studies, he was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 1994.

But his political ambitions surfaced during his university days. While other children his age chilled out during holidays, Lammy volunteered to represent people in cases before the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. He also did a placement in Jamaica for Amnesty International and volunteered in Thailand for Prisoners Abroad.

For the moment though, he wants to tackle the concerns of the Indian legal community. According to him, Indian advocates who make up the mainstay of the Indian legal fraternity want to know why foreign lawyers want to enter their turf.

And if they are going to make court appearances, will they be allowed to enter the hallowed portals of British courts? He points to London, which boasts of 200 legal firms representing 35 countries, including India.

"This is an issue, particularly, where you have growing economies. India is a beacon of that growth, and that's why it is an important issue," says he.

Lammy says that these are some of the myths that he wants to debunk.

"Foreign lawyers don't need to be in India's courts. They don't want to practice family law and property law and the whole range of things most lawyers are occupied with. What we are talking about is one per cent of the entire legal market, an important percentage in terms of commercial transactions," he says.

He refers to his earlier visit when he was part of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's entourage. At that time, former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee had faced 20 of Britain's top business leaders with a message: come and invest in India.

"Companies seeking to do business in India also need legal and financial services support. They need to speak to a lawyer in the US or Britain on the US or British aspect of the deal and a lawyer who could advise them on the Indian aspect of the deal," says Lammy.

But hasn't this been happening all along, where Indian legal firms have loose tie-ups with top British law firms? "They have loose tie-ups, but the client has to pay more than once anyway. And clearly, they haven't got a lawyer based here and these issues have not, in a sense, been available on the ground. We are not talking of deregulation, but about regulation, and it is going to be different for different countries," he explains.

According to him, all of this will make a huge difference to Indian law firms. Apart from curtailing a client's legal expenses, "there will be much better cross-transfer of know-how between Indian and foreign law firms."

"Whenever you are talking about globalisation or internalisation, it is about know-how and cross-transfer of skills. There will be a levelling of abilities," he says. He refers to the law firm Clifford Chance in Thailand which is manned by Thai lawyers.

When the British legal market opened up in the late 1980s, Lammy claims that lawyers in London were sceptical. Their reaction was: "Oh my God, we can't let the Americans in, they are going to snap up the work." It was around the time the British economy was benefitting from the North Sea oil boom.

"Americans had a lot of expertise dealing with oil and gas, expertise that wasn't within the British legal community. Now, we have a group of British lawyers in London who are extremely experienced in oil and gas. And many of the American law firms once in London are not there. Much of that will happen in India too," he says.

The way he is taking up the cause of British lawyers, small wonder that even Tony Blair is said to have hailed him as the future "first black Prime minister of Britain."