Allen & Overy has ended its five-year referral agreement with Indian law firm Trilegal, citing the lack of progress in the liberalisation of India’s legal sector. 

“The original agreement was intended to take advantage of the anticipated liberalisation of the Indian legal market,” the two firms said in a joint statement. However, stalled progress of that “has led both firms to conclude their existing arrangement is restricting their ability fully to exploit the growing opportunities in India.”

“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,” said Allen & Overy India Group head Jonathan Brayne in the statement. “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.”

One of the notable recent deals that the two firms worked together on was the Industrial Development
Bank of India’s $200 million Singapore dollar bond offering. 

Ranajit Dam is Southeast Asia Editor at ALB. Follow us on Twitter: @ALB_Magazine.

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