Big Four Barred From Practising Law in India
The order follows a complaint filed by the president of The Society of Indian Law Firms.
May 08, 2019 at 05:02 AM
3 minute read
Credit: Pixabay
The Bar Council of Delhi has barred the Big Four accountancy firms from practising law in India until further notice.
The order was passed after the president of The Society of Indian Law Firms, Lalit Bhasin, filed a complaint against accountants KPMG, EY, PwC and Deloitte in 2015.
The complaint was then taken up by the council in a meeting on April 12, 2019, after which letters were sent to each of the Big Four.
The letters, sent on May 2 and seen by Legal Week, said: "The council has observed that your firm is actually an accounting firm, however, [and] is engaged in doing law practice."
The letters have directed each of the Big Four to "refrain from engaging in any such practice until further orders".
The firms have also been directed to provide details of all their lawyers who have been used by them "in any capacity, in any of your offices at any place".
KPMG and Deloitte have filed their replies to the notice, the letters said, while PwC has been given six weeks to reply, and EY four weeks.
The firms have been asked to be present for a hearing on the issue on July 12.
PwC declined to comment. The other three firms did not respond to requests for comment.
Bhasin said: "The law in India is that only advocates can practice law – only those who are enrolled with the Bar Council. It is an offence if anyone else starts the unauthorised practice of law."
In 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled that foreign law firms are not permitted to establish permanent offices in the country, but that they are allowed to advise on non-Indian law matters on a temporary basis.
The developments in India come amid a period of rapid expansion for the Big Four's legal arms across the world. Deloitte has just sealed an alliance with a US law firm and has made its first lateral hires for its Hong Kong legal arm, PwC is plotting a major expansion of its financial services legal practice in the UK and has just launched a legal tech incubator, EY has been bulking up its legal arms across Asia in the last 12 months, and earlier this year KPMG France hired 144 lawyers in a mass raid on local firm Fidal.
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