Luthra & Luthra Partner Vijay Sondhi's win in the Delhi Bar Council elections may have upped the expectations of several interested spectators with regard to Hitesh Jain's prospects. The ALMT Partner [pictured] is one of the 136 candidates in the fray for the 25 posts, and has been aggressively canvassing votes through a state-wide campaign in Maharashtra and Goa, and through the newly-popular medium of social networking.

The hotly-contested elections will begin at 9am tomorrow morning; this Bar Council has one of the largest electorates, with 282 booths listed for voting across 37 districts, 2 states (Goa and Maharashtra) and 1 Union Territory (Daman, Diu & Dadra Nagar Haveli). The Bar Council, in an attempt to help candidates identify their target audience, has prepared and put up for sale - at Rs.1,500 each - a compact disk with the names of the voters in the final electoral roll.

Sondhi and Jain have become the symbols for an increased interaction between litigating and non-litigating lawyers. With the Bombay High Court holding that lawyers involved in non-litigious matters should also be enrolled, the law firm community appears to have woken up to the fact that they might also need representation in the statutory body governing their entry into the profession of law.

ALMT Partner Sameer Tapia, while expressing the firm's support for Jain's candidature, also raised the issue of law firm representation in Bar Councils. "Bombay is one of the few places where the solicitor-counsel system is still in place. Yet, law firms have not found representation in the Bar Council. To improve relations between client, lawyer and law firm, it is important that law firms have representation," he opined.

He also pointed out that Hitesh Jain was the ideal representative to bridge the gap. "In [Jain] we have not just a Partner from a law firm, but also an Advocate on Record and a lawyer on the original side."

Referring to the increasingly urgent debate on the entry of foreign firms into India, he said, "The Bar Council has been discussing the entry of foreign firms into India; regardless of whether they are allowed, law firms should have a say, and representation in the Bar Council would give us a voice."

SILF President Lalit Bhasin also perceives the need for law firm representation in Bar Councils. In conversation with Bar & Bench, he stated that the SILF encourages its member-firms to support candidates and participate in the election process.

"SILF seeks to get involved in the Bar Council and put forth suggestions and give inputs as to how law firms and their interests are to be protected. Under the Advocates Act, every lawyer has to be registered and as the legal system becomes more and more professional with many law firms developing, representation should be there," he said. He added that law firm nominees can give valuable inputs in the manner in which the legal profession must gear itself as India develops in a globalised world.

Legal education has, in recent history, become quite a bone of contention for Bar Councils. Anil Harish, Associate Vice-President, SILF and Managing Partner of D.M. Harish & Co., also opined that Bar Councils should make a push towards continuing legal education. "Unlike Chartered Accountants, whose governing body, the ICAI, has over 500 programmes of continuing education in order to introduce diversity within the system, the Bar Council has not introduced any programmes for continuing legal education," he mentioned.

He also felt that it was time Bar Councils took another look at the thorny issue of advertising by lawyers. Harish pointed out that with firms in other countries being allowed to set up websites and advertise the restrictions placed by the Bar Council should be re-thought.

Harish hopes that an influx of new blood into the Bar Councils will ensure a dialogue on these issues, "In order for different views to be presented, different sides must be represented."

(With inputs from Aditya Swarup in Mumbai)