As we enter the 12 months 2023, and Karanjawala & Co. seems ahead to turning into 40 years of age (my spouse, Manik and I started the Agency on the first of February 1983), I believe that is an opportune second to look again on the authorized panorama over the past 40 odd years to see what are the modifications which have occurred therein. For the reason that time I joined the Bar in 1979 until right this moment, there have been to my thoughts three important modifications on the authorized panorama, two of which have already taken place, and one in every of which, is a piece in progress. The First change is apparent to all, particularly – that within the final 40 years, the authorized occupation has had an exponential enhance within the quantity of charges legal professionals cost and the status they command.
Once I joined the Bar, the highest seniors of the Supreme Court docket would cost no more than Rs. 1,040/- for an look, right this moment for a similar, Counsels of comparable standing, routinely cost Rs. 10 to fifteen lacs. The Second change that has taken place is that we’ve entered an period of specialization, particularly put up liberalization. Even in as far as litigation is worried, there at the moment are numerous Tribunals specializing within the adjudication of various branches of the legislation, e.g., while within the previous days the whole lot aggregated within the Excessive Court docket, right this moment there are greater than a dozen Tribunals to enumerate just some – Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the Earnings Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT), the Competitors Appellate Tribunal (The COMPAT), the Securities Appellate Tribunal (The SAT), Nationwide Firm Legislation Tribunal (NCLT), Nationwide Client Disputes Redressal Fee (NCDRC) and so forth. These are located geographically elsewhere, and because of this, have rotating round them, totally different bars of their very own, and this in flip has led to even on the litigative degree, growing specialization.
The Third change is the one which I’m now primarily going to write down about. Once I joined the Bar, it was the authorized corporations that dominated the roost and dominated the authorized panorama, e.g. Bombay had the blue blooded Crawford Bayley & Co., and the Parsi dominated Mulla & Mulla, on the very prime of the heap adopted by Little & Co. (while you enter the workplace of Little & Co., there’s a plaque exterior mentioning that they’d been solicitors to the East India Firm) and Kanga & Co. and Gagrat & Co., which got here thereafter, after which there have been a number of smaller corporations, every of whom managed a substantial pocket of labor. In Calcutta, there was, from reminiscence, Khaitan & Co. and Orr Dignam, and the South of India used to boast of a agency referred to as King and Partridge. In Delhi, the main Solicitor cum Advocate-on-File agency was J.B. Dadachanji & Co. adopted by my senior P.H. Parekh & Co. and likewise I.N. Shroff, which grew to become Amarchand Mangaldas. In these days, the litigative occupation was managed by these corporations, and it was they, who determined which counsels the purchasers went to, and in a way, may and did make or break the careers of many such counsels. That was the state of affairs that prevailed for my part someplace until the Nineties when slowly the gears shifted and one started to see that in high-stake issues, the purchasers flocked on to the counsels’ chambers with their solicitor following go well with. This then grew to become an period of counsel domination, and (what was a standard observe within the South, particularly that eminent counsels had their chambers, to which purchasers straight got here) slowly began percolating in direction of Bombay, Calcutta and Delhi the place now purchasers selected to single out the counsel they needed in a specific matter, and it was the counsels, who started to dominate the authorized panorama.
You had within the late 80s and early Nineties, on the very prime Counsels of universe, like – (i) Mr. F. S. Nariman, (ii) Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee, (iii) Mr. Okay.Okay. Venugopal, (iv) Mr. V.M. Tarkunde, (v) Dr. Y.S. Chitale, (vi)Mr. Anil B. Dewan, (vii) Mr. P.R. Mridul, (viii) Mr. Okay. Parasaran, (ix) Mr. Ashok Desai, (x) Mr. Kapil Sibal, and lots of others. The loyalty of the consumer had by then shifted from the solicitors’ agency to the counsels’ chamber, and this was a shift that slowly grew to become noticeable to the skilled authorized eye through the years.
Now, the query I pose within the title of the article and is a nuanced shift that I’ve been noticing for the previous few years, is that we’re slowly getting into into the period of the Basic Counsels. The significance of the Basic Counsel of an organization in America is mirrored by his bodily proximity to the Chairman, often his workplace is subsequent to the Chairman’s workplace.
As my good friend, Mr. Bahram Vakil, Accomplice of AZB as soon as mentioned to me, the G.C. of G.E. sat on the board with Jack Welch.
If Jack Welch needed one thing to occur, however the G.C. overruled it, it couldn’t occur. We in India, after all, are very distant from that exact stage in our authorized panorama, however, I’ve seen in the previous few years, that the voice of the Basic Counsel of an organization is rising stronger and louder, and now, in issues of conduct of essential litigation, theirs is more and more the voice that’s heard, and that’s as a result of the Basic Counsels right this moment include a excessive degree of authorized sophistication in as far as the authorized system is worried, and likewise possess a deep degree of trade information. I due to this fact see within the coming years, an rising development by which the gears of the authorized system will probably as soon as once more shift, and maybe within the years to come back, the conduct of a litigation is not going to be a lot beneath the steerage of both the counsels or the corporations that transient them, however within the fingers of the Basic Counsel.
That is after all, as I mentioned earlier than, remains to be a piece in progress and lots of modifications should be made earlier than they purchase the form of presence they’ve in America. The approaching 12 months could nevertheless effectively usher to start with of their period.
The author is Managing Accomplice of Karanjawala & Co.
