Clifford Chance (CC) has ended its 'best friends' relationship with Indian outfit AZB & Partners as hopes fade of the Indian legal market opening up to foreign law firms any time soon.

The two firms decided to downgrade their 'best friends' relationship to 'good friends' at a meeting earlier this month. The decision was made because the long-awaited liberalisation of the Indian legal market looks increasingly unlikely to happen in the near future.

It is understood that the best friends relationship also no longer seemed necessary because CC's capital markets team in Singapore, which was set up in 2008 to focus on capital markets transactions in India, was coping with existing work levels, while CC also has 40 Indian-qualified lawyers working across the firm.

CC and AZB established their best friends relationship in January 2009, with both firms planning to refer work to each other on a non-exclusive basis initially, with the longer-term ambition of tightening the relationships when local laws permitted it.

AZB has four offices across India in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune. It is thought the firm has no plans to tie up with a different UK firm.

News of the relationship changing comes after CC appointed Singapore managing partner Geraint Hughes to lead its India group in November 2010 after the previous post-holder, Chris Wyman, retired from the firm.

In July 2010, former CC senior partner Stuart Popham headed a British delegation visiting India to discuss the entry of UK firms into the closed legal market.