India Business Law Journal – July/August 2026

Mixed blessing

Is it time to change the rules on receiving the senior advocate designation?

India’s legal profession is attempting to reconcile two competing demands: preserving the independence and traditions of the bar while adapting to a legal market that is increasingly commercial and global.

India’s lawyers are being asked not only to respond to change, but also to help shape how the profession and the businesses that they serve will operate in the years ahead. These demands bring new tidings and new challenges. Few issues capture this tension more clearly than the rules requiring dispute partners to leave their law firms in order to obtain the senior advocate designation from the court.

Our Cover story, titled When seniority demands separation, examines this subject in depth. The debate goes beyond the practical question of where senior advocates should practise. It touches on professional independence, client service, access to specialist expertise, and the ability of Indian law firms to compete in an increasingly international market.

The Society of Indian Law Firms is working with the Bar Council of India on possible changes that could allow designated senior advocates to remain affiliated with firms.

Lawyers who have moved into independent practice point to the autonomy and advocacy that influenced their decisions, while others see scope for a framework that accommodates modern firm structures without compromising the independence expected of senior advocates.

The discussion comes at a time when the wider legal profession is also being reshaped by changing client expectations and increasingly complex business needs.

The IBLJ In-House Counsel Awards highlights the changing role of corporate legal departments, with JSW Group taking the top honour as In-House Legal Team of the Year and Vallur Ranganathan Shankar, chief legal officer at Hindalco Industries, recognised as In-House Counsel of the Year.

The awards demonstrate how legal teams are moving beyond traditional compliance and dispute management to become strategic partners involved in transactions, technology, governance, risk management and growth. Lean teams are handling sophisticated work across jurisdictions, while legal leaders are increasingly expected to understand commercial priorities and provide solutions that support the wider business.

Technology is, in turn, creating a new set of questions for those same legal teams. In ANI v OpenAI, we look at the implications of India’s first substantive ruling on artificial intelligence (AI) training and copyright. Although Delhi High Court’s interim decision does not settle the wider question of whether copyrighted material can be used to train AI models, it provides important early lessons for businesses.

Questions around licensing, permissions, opt-outs, technical evidence and the use of content by AI systems are likely to remain firmly on the in-house agenda as litigation and policy develop.

The changing legal landscape is not limited to emerging technology. In Recognition at last, we examine how the regulation of the profession itself could also be on the verge of change.

The proposed Bar Council of India Draft Advocates (Amendment) Bill 2026 would not only introduce statutory recognition and registration requirements for law practices, but would also create a framework for limited access by foreign law firms and lawyers.

The proposals could have significant implications for firms of all sizes, particularly in relation to professional resources, compliance costs, transparency and competition. As the proposals move towards consultation and parliamentary scrutiny, the balance between modernisation and protection of the domestic profession will remain central to the debate.

The Expert briefings in this issue examine how legal teams are responding to changing business and regulatory environments. In Structuring real estate private credit in India, we look at a market in which increasingly sophisticated financing structures are placing greater emphasis on documentation, security packages, cash-flow controls, information rights and enforcement strategies. The interaction between the external commercial borrowings regime, Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, and Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act means that transactions require careful structuring and diligence, particularly where developers operate across multiple projects and jurisdictions.

The same need for combined legal and regulatory thinking is evident in workforce governance. In New workforce governance architecture, the authors consider the convergence of employment law, digital data protection and international compliance.

As businesses prepare for the operationalisation of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act alongside the four labour codes, employers will need to address issues ranging from employee data and cross-border transfers to employer-of-record arrangements, contractual protections and information technology access controls.