New Delhi: In a first of its kind venture, an Indian corporate law firm has tied up with its counterparts in UAE and Saudi Arabia seeking to leverage the fast growing India-Gulf trade, investment and people-to-people ties.
The Indian law firm Kochhar & Co has formed separate joint ventures with the Law Offices of Mohammad Issa Odeh (MIO) in UAE, and with the Law Offices of Khalid Alnowaiser in Saudi Arabia.
“These are pioneering JVs. Since we are the only such Indian law firm, we hope to attract a lot of legal work especially in big-ticket infrastructure ventures in the Gulf, as a majority of the work in the sector in the region is supported by Indian construction companies,” Mr Rohit Kochhar, Chairman and Managing Partner, Kochhar & Co, said.
“The focus will also be on arbitration as well as legal documentation work for large commercial contracts, investment funds and even outbound investments for the Royal families there. With our JVs, we aim to be the largest legal services player in the Gulf within five years,” Mr Kochhar said.
Noting that some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, are in the region, he said that through these JVs, his law firm was looking at representing these funds, not just for their investments in India, but globally.
These JVs will also look at providing legal support to Indians who have lost money to Gulf-based companies during the recent real estate crisis in that region, he said.
“The Arab world has a major shortage of high quality legal talent that are English speaking. We have such lawyers and at prices at least 50 per cent cheaper than the English-speaking lawyers from developed countries,” he said.
Incidentally, India is the largest trading partner of the Gulf Cooperation Council that includes Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In 2008, India-GCC trade crossed $91 billion.
Saudi Arabia is India's fourth-largest trading partner with bilateral trade at over $25 billion. Besides, over four million Indian workers in the Gulf, including about two million in Saudi Arabia, remit to India around $5 billion annually.
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