Less than three years away from his firm's 100-year anniversary, Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co's Shardul Shroff is ambitious as ever. The corporate partner, who co-heads India's largest law firm alongside his brother Cyril, talks of possibly opening a ninth domestic office in one of the country's second-tier cities, and remains committed to breaking the 100-partner barrier by the end of the year. The firm currently has 86 partners.

Perhaps most importantly, his sights remain set on launching Amarchand's first international office – a move that could spark a major turning point in a legal market that has been purely domestic up to this point. Shroff identifies Singapore as potentially the destination of choice. "Singapore [is the strongest contender] because its links with India are quite strong," he explains. "Singapore enables clients to service the whole of the ASEAN market.

"But it could be Hong Kong, London, Dubai or New York – it depends on what 2016 looks like. It also depends where clients need us."

He makes it clear that the firm will approach the prospect of international expansion with caution. The goal is not to merely plant a flag, as lawyers are wont to say, but to ensure a profitable base that won't upset the firm's 'best friends' network.

"It would have to be an office of significance, not just a representative office where you receive the mail," he insists. "We want to do it properly. We also don't want to disturb our international relationships with global law firms – we want to preserve these. But equally we want to provide Indian expertise that is relevant to the international market. We want to be present in markets where the local Indian situation becomes relevant; approaching the clients on their doorstep rather than expecting them to come to India."

Entering the global market has, evidently, not been easy for any Indian law firm, even a relative behemoth like Amarchand. One of the reasons is that, despite the country's now flourishing economy, there remain just a handful of local companies operating abroad, and therefore few anchor clients for firms to follow. Under these circumstances Shroff says it is difficult for firms to compete beyond their own turf.

But the biggest barriers to firms' global aspirations are a host of administrative constraints within their own market. Until April this year, Indian firms could have no more than 20 partners. Although that rule has been binned, firms continue to be plagued by restrictions around maintaining a website, distributing marketing material and other advertising activities. Indian insurance companies, meanwhile, offer extremely limited professional indemnity cover to lawyers, who are also subject to an unlimited liability structure as opposed to the LLP option enjoyed by their UK and US counterparts.

Firms are also far from the stage of being able to access capital from non-lawyers, as UK firms can do in the wake of the Legal Services Act. Most outfits therefore remain small and with limited skill sets.

"This is what stands in the way of Indian firms becoming truly global," Shroff explains. "There are firms that have gone to China or Singapore but their offices are small and not significant enough to make a statement on behalf of Indian lawyers."

Although the restriction on partner numbers has been lifted, he believes there is a lot more work to do: "The gap needs to be reduced; they need to resolve the local firm issues and create a level playing field between local and international firms. They need to put a timeline on it – to bring in new rules."

As for international players coming to India, Shroff still thinks this could be permitted within the next 10 years, and insists it could be beneficial for the country, opening the market in "many ways".

Nonetheless, he believes that without new freedoms for domestic firms, such a move would be a disaster as it could place international firms at an advantage. "The regulatory restrictions  [on Indian firms] need to be addressed," he argues. "Very few firms are ready for that kind of thing. The level playing field is critical."