Dear Sir,
Being one of the oldest law firms, and having high professional and fair ethos, we welcome India Business Law Journal’s initiative to publish the billing rates of Indian law firms (IBLJ, October 2008) and we gladly participated in the report.
While the report reveals what clients think about law firms’ billing policies, it also conveys that Indian law firms are providing value for money in the international context.
The selection of a legal adviser is seldom done on the basis of “fees” only. It primarily depends on the expertise and intricate knowledge and experience as well as the speed and quality of the service provided by a law firm.
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With reference to the comments on transparency, we may mention that it is difficult to provide a lump sum fee estimate while taking up an assignment as this would depend on the time required to be spent. Therefore the only way to engage is on the basis of an hourly rate at each level. It cannot be denied that this system is at times subjected to abuse, but this is not the case always.
We at Kanga believe in minimizing the cost to the client without compromising on the requirement of the assignment.
Both transparency by law firms and understanding by the clients of the efforts and time contributed by the lawyers are required.
We heartily congratulate India Business Law Journal on this project and appreciate that it has achieved the objective.
We are sure this will help clients and law firms to understand each other better.
ML Bhakta
Senior Partner
Kanga & Co
Mumbai
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