A view of Delhi High Court, in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Delhi High Court on Thursday (August 21, 2025) directed the Bar Council of India (BCI) not to pass any final order on its show cause notice against the ‘Dentons Link Legal’ alliance, which is under scrutiny for alleged violations of the Indian legal and regulatory framework.
The Court’s direction came on a petition filed by Atul Sharma and his law firm ‘Link Legal’, which entered into a “combination” with foreign law firm Dentons Group under the Swiss Verein model to form ‘Dentons Link Legal’.
The BCI had, on August 5, issued notices to ‘Dentons Link Legal’ and another firm ‘CMS INDUSLAW’ over what it described as unauthorized and impermissible collaborations between Indian and foreign law firms.
The notices followed a public circular in which the Council expressed concern that certain foreign firms, through structures like Swiss Vereins, strategic alliances, referral models, or joint branding initiatives, were projecting themselves in association with Indian firms as integrated global legal platforms.
The Council stated that such structures, if implemented and operationalised without prior registration under the Bar Council of India Rules for Registration and Regulation of Foreign Lawyers and Foreign Law Firms in India, 2023, are impermissible.
In response, the petitioners argued before the court that their “combination” with Dentons in 2023 was not a merger but a permitted association under the Swiss Verein model.
A Swiss Verein is a legal structure under Swiss law that allows independent firms to operate under a common global brand while remaining financially and legally separate.
They claimed the combination of the Link Legal with Dentons Group was “fully compliant” with the Advocates Act and the applicable rules.
They further contended that the BCI, by making the show cause notice public through its August 5 press release, had caused irreparable damage to their professional standing.
“Respondent No.1 (BCI) irresponsibly made the contents of the Show Cause Notice public thereby causing irreparable harm to the professional reputation of the Petitioners,” the plea said.
The Court will hear the case again on August 28.
Published – August 22, 2025 07:02 am IST
