Spotlight Legal recruitment

Indian lawyers are in demand like never before. Foreign law firms andLPOs have entered the race to snap up the best candidates. How canlocal practices and in-house legal teams withstand the onslaught?

Raghavendra Verma reports from New De/hi

As bankers in the West live in fear of salary cuts andredundancies in the face of financial turmoil, lawyersin India can sit back, somewhat relaxed and highly

assured of their job security. The steady growth of theIndian economy and increase in the demand for high-endlegal work have resulted in a recruitment crunch. Salariesare skyrocketing, lawyers are jumping from one employerto another and law firms are struggling to attract and retaintalented individuals.

"Recruiting the best talent was never easy, but recently,retaining them has become even more difficult," saysDinesh Sharma, head of Personnel Junction, a Delhi-basedrecruitment consultancy.

"There is a total change in the nature of the legal profes­sion and the churning continues," says Sumeet Kachwahaof Delhi-based law firm Kachwaha & Partners. "We arewitnessing a whole new ball game in matters of recruitmentand retention."

• India Business Law Journal

Competing for talent

Indian law firms are far from the only contenders inthe c1amour for qualified professionals. International lawfirms, corporate in-house legal departments and out­sourcing companies are also chasing the relatively smallpool of competent commercial lawyers practising in thecountry.

The greatest impact is felt by firms focusing on inter­national clients, mergers and acquisitions and privateequity. Robin Doenicke, a partner at Tokyo-basedrecruitment agency Zensho, reveals that "an increasingnumber of our US and UK law firm clients are asking usto find Indian lawyers to join their India practice teams inHong Kong and Singapore."

From the perspective of domestic firms, lawyers in themiddle rung of the legal ladder, with over five years ofexperience, are the hardest to recruit. In addition, there

October 2008

legal recruitrnent

Recruiting the best talentwas never easy, but recently,retaining them has becomeeven more difficultOinesh SharmaHeadPersonnel Junction ,

appears to be a severe shortage of the highest-calibrelawyers, particularly in fields where specialist technicalexpertise is required.

"Good drafting skills, terrific judgement, and an abilityto take risks are essential to being a successful corpo­rate lawyer," says Anand Pathak of P&A Law Offices.However, many observers are finding that the majority ofthe talent on offer falls well short of these requirements.

Mark Ross of outsourcing firm LawScribe explains thatin the US, intellectual property lawyers generally hold anundergraduate degree in engineering. However, findingindividuals with similar qualifications in India can be verydifficult.

Lawyers possessing in-depth knowledge of sectorssuch as finance, telecoms, media, energy, real estateand infrastructure are equally difficult to locate.

When looking for specialist skills, says Vi nodMahboobani, in-house counsel at Yum! Restaurants, itis difficult to recruit lawyers "who are prepared to giveclear directional advice to the management on [a] 'yes,please proceed' or 'no, we cannot proceed' [basis], asopposed to answers like 'it depends' or 'there is a 50%chance of success'''.

The shortage of specialist skills is exacerbating theproblem of legal recruitment, especially at a time whenemerging businesses such as outsourcing, combinedwith the recent trend for international law firms to recruitheavily in India, are creating unprecedented internation<:11demand for Indian lawyers.

Law schools fail to deliver

The lack of practical skills should, theoretically atleast, be resolved by an increased flow of young gradu­ates from India's law schools. However, according toNikhil Chandra, the CEO of Mumbai-based recruitmentfirm Rainmaker, only a small percentage of the 50,000­80,000 fresh law graduates every year have the skillsneeded to make an impact on the profession.

No one doubts the calibre of graduates from theNational Law School in Bangalore, Nalsar University ofLaw in Hyderabad and the National University of JuridicalSciences in Kolkota, the three leading law schools in thecountry. However their total annual turnout is a mere 300.

October 2008

Spotlight

Sharma at Personnel Junction believes that mostlaw graduates are not adequately prepared to take onthe complexities of legal practice. Chandra attributesthis problem to flaws in the curricula of various Indianlaw schools that rely predominantly on theoreticalinstruction.

Signs of change are, however, beginning to emerge.Ross says that some Indian law schools are startingto work closely with leading legal process outsourcingcompanies and universities in the US with regards tothe development of additional curricula to supplementtraditional LLB programmes and improve other existingcourses.

Vivek Hurry, COO of Mumbai-based outsourcing firmExactus Corporation, says some law colleges are nowteaching computer applications, corporate etiquetteand management skills, which along with poor languageskills are said to be significant shortcomings amonggraduates.

But according to Chris Wyman, a partner at London­based law firm Clifford Chance, the wait for new gradu­ates to solve the problem might be too long. A substan­tial pool of good lawyers will only be available in five or10 years, even if commercial law institutes revamp theircurricula and double their intakes right now.

The only other alternative, for domestic recruiters atleast, is to find a way of encouraging more overseasIndian lawyers to return home. However, Tara Brennan,head of Asia-Pacific at recruitment firm Laurence Simons,says that "only a small percentage of them are convincedthat the quality of work and level of financial reward [inIndia] would justify such a move".

Stockpiling expertise

It is also unlikely that the foreign employers of Indianlawyers would let them go without a fight. Indeed, theinternational law firms that have been snapping upIndian graduates over the last few years have done sowith a long term strategic agenda.

According to Martin Piers, global head of recruit­ment agency Hudson, many international law firms areseeking to stockpile the best Indian lawyers in anticipa­tion of the liberalization of the country's legal market.

Good drafting skills, terrificjudgement, and an ability totake risks are essential to beinga successful corporate lawyerAnand PathakPartnerP&A Law Offices

"India Business Law Journal Ell