This article on “Different Legal Service Providers in India” is written by Ishita Mehta.
The Indian legal service markets in India have been growing constantly at a rapid speed. The regulatory body for the legal profession of India is the BCI (Bar council of India ) and only after globalization there has been a lot of change towards the Indian legal sector.
Also Read: History of the legal profession
In the past few years, more firms want to do their business in India. The Indian legal profession is one of the most profit producing profession and millions of advocates are practicing in the country.
If we look at the provision of the Advocates Act 1961, a brief reading of it provides that a normal person who has been enrolled in state bar council or has a law degree from a recognized college and is a citizen of India can practice law as a profession.
This led to hindrance in the entry of the foreign firms.
The legal service market has emerged as a highest competitive market. The emerging legal service sector is beneficial to the consumers since the services offered to consumers are only the domestic legal services.
Different Types Of Legal Service Providers
Now we will be coming to the different kinds of legal service providers in India. The different kinds of legal service providers can be categorized as-
- A Law firm,
- The Specialized lawyers practicing in a particular field,
- Solo lawyers who have their independent practice,
- The Ones Specialized in tribunals, startups, online legal service providers, etc.
Lawyers are not alike. Lawyers work in different areas and in many capacities. Different legal service providers are offering a huge range of legal related services. The new types of legal service providers are now available to the clients, including the following-
Contract Lawyers
These are the self-employed lawyers who are engaged in the short term projects. Working as a self-employed lawyer or a solicitor, the legal service provider is in control of the number of hours he wants to work.
One of the major advantage in becoming a self-employed lawyer is one has the flexibility in the working hours. Self-employed lawyer is responsible for his or her own income tax holding and the security. There is a major satisfactory value of one’s own progress.
We should realize that there are two ways of becoming a self-employed lawyer-
- The lawyer can work on a freelance basis, and
- The lawyer can set up his own firm.
But,
A Self-employed lawyer does involve the expense of hiring the other employees. They work with many clients at the same time and provide them with legal assistance regarding their case matters.
- They are usually paid by the amount of work done rather than the hours they spend on finishing the work. We see them most of the time working.
- The environment of the self-employed legal service provider is totally different from the corporate environment. But, Specialization in a particular field of law helps a self-employed lawyer in a better way as it gets him more cases. It is beneficial for his long-term survival.
Now, we will also discuss the tax implications of the self-employed lawyers. It has both pros and cons.
Pros & Cons Of A Self Employed Lawyer
- Employees working for someone usually cannot deduct tax implications with regards to work related expenses but, on the other hand, self-employed lawyers can do that as they can deduct tax for using their homes as their office or from the salaries of the employees.
This can also be said as a con as they have to pay the whole security by themselves without any outside help.
- Be it a self-employed legal service provider or not, there should always be a developed business strategy to make growth in the business.
One stable client can establish a new business but more clients will lead to the growth and the succession of the whole business.
Specialized Lawyers
- Specialized lawyers are the ones who have specialization in a particular legal area- be it a tax lawyer, the environmental legal service provider or international human rights lawyer.
Specialization can be said as the practice of achieving the long term goals.
- Specialization has a quantum of information based on a single field of practice area. Any legal query or doubt can be cleared within a fraction of time. Many attorneys have now chosen to specialize in any area they like.
The difference between a specialized lawyer and a contract lawyer is that they have an advantage over attorneys who practice different laws as they are experts in a single field of law. Hence, the public chooses the specialized lawyer instead of the self-employed one.
As the Specialized lawyers have more experience, the clients go to them to get expert and quick advice. It’s the strategy to achieve best practice. It brings consistency in the system and efficiency in the law area.
There have been a lot of challenges also in being a specialized lawyer, i.e.-
They usually have to maintain a resource system, and they only get to reach out to a certain part of the society which eliminates the chances of their getting the work.
Big Law Firm As Legal Service Providers
The large firm likes to call itself as “Big law firm” because they have different sections each working in different legal areas.
- These big law firm provide expertise for different aspects in the legal field. A Big law firm spread the pre- law online community.
- The term “Big law” can be summarized as jobs which involve-
- Working in large firms that hire attorneys and pay them in relation to the market rate,
- It demands long working hours to follow and mostly focuses on presenting other corporations and not the individual.
- This is the most dominating and largest legal service market in India.
- Big law firms have both high-level associates and the low-level associates.
- The main aim of the big law firm is to provide legal services which are efficient and cost effective.
- They want a focused approach in all the client’s requirements in the corporate domain.
- What they want is a strong work ethic and they want everyone to work independently without telling them to do anything.
- Big law firms want a firm content and want their clients to get a satisfactory value of their time and money. It is also involved in business transactions with other corporations and organizations.
Specialized Tribunal As An Alternative To Court
- It provides expert views and ideas on the particular case in the relevant field. Along with this, the tribunal focuses on the proceedings to be carried out as a judicial body, rather than the administrative body.
- There has always been a need of special tribunals as the decisions are taken by the mainstream courts such as High court and other civil courts. In this era, the new tribunals and commissions proposed by the government agencies are speedy and they help in the modernizing dispensation of justice in the economic system. Specialized tribunals help in reducing the burden of the judicial system.
- In the natural justice system, there is always a long procedure for the functioning. Specialized tribunals can give us a more flexible procedure.
Legal Startups As Legal Service Providers
A startup is a business, an association or impermanent association, intended to look for a versatile plan of action. These organizations are recently established and are in a period of advancement and research for business sectors.
New businesses can come in all the structures and sizes. A basic errand in setting up a business is to have required a legitimate support from individuals who can comprehend the Start-Ups and can direct research, keeping in mind the end goal, to approve, evaluate and build up the thoughts or business ideas notwithstanding chances to set up further and more profound comprehension of the thoughts or business ideas and additionally their business potential.
There are major problems involved in the process of beginning the startup. There are different kinds of legal start-ups provided these days. One amongst them are the online legal startups.
The main problem with the an online legal startup is people are too used to going to a lawyer and talking to them face to face. So what has to be done in a startup is to convince the people that online method can be more effortless and reliable and effective in the working too.
Online Legal startups As Legal Service Providers
Every transaction in our daily lives is related to law. We need to understand that law works in our everyday lives and if the law is ignored, it might cause some problems. Thus, the online legal service provides superior quality in helping a layperson to understand the law better.
Internet has become one of the most basic facility everyone has and which everyone applies in their daily life thus, making the internet a platform to give legal advice and legal representation of clients.
There are a lot of online legal services that have been commenced to provide the client with a better understanding and to protect them from any kind of grievances. Usually, these online legal services act as virtual attorneys. There are many people who are choosing online legal services.
Conclusion
India has the second largest legal profession in the work with over 600,000 lawyers. In India legal profession is considered as a noble profession.
There are immense number of practices being done to increase the legal service providers. This not only provides a wider base of the legal profession but, also provides daily wages to a lot of people in India. This marketplace is transforming day by day.
Legal service providers are here to stay . They examine closely what are the needs of the clients and they try to give a remedy, if available.
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