Allen & Overy (A&O) and Indian law firm Trilegal have called time on their five-year referral agreement, as efforts to liberalise the country's legal market continue to stall.

The firms announced the decision today (27 September) stating that they have opted to end the agreement in order to better exploit opportunities in the country.

The magic circle firm first entered into a best friends relationship with Trilegal in February 2008 for an initial three-year period, which was then extended indefinitely in 2011.

The relationship was further cemented when capital markets partner Srinivas Parthasarathy left A&O's Singapore office in October 2009 to join Trilegal as a partner in Mumbai and head the capital markets group at the firm.

A&O India group head Jonathan Brayne said: "There is an obvious need to adapt our India strategy to give us, and Trilegal, greater flexibility to both service the needs of our clients and cement our leading market position on India-related work.

"We have the highest opinion of Trilegal and we look forward to continuing to work with them when the opportunity presents itself, but also to collaborating with other Indian law firms."

Trilegal senior partner Anand Prasad added: "We believe our relationship with A&O has been of great benefit to both firms. But both sides agree that, in the absence of liberalisation, each firm stands a better chance of increasing its market share by broadening our options for collaboration in the market."

The news comes after Clifford Chance ended its 'best friends' relationship with Indian outfit AZB & Partners in January 2011, also in light of indications that the Indian legal market was not going to open up to foreign law firms in the near future.