Cuttack, Sept. 2: Legal education luminary N.R. Madhava Menon today emphasised the need for "internationalisation of legal profession" while delivering a lecture to mark the 27th death anniversary of barrister Ranjit Mahanty.

At the event organised by the Ranjit Mahanty Memorial Committee at the Orissa High Court Bar Association Hall, Menon said: "Internationalisation of legal profession will be advantageous to the Indian bar and of great benefit to the litigant public."

"There can be conditions to ensure quality of services rendered by foreign lawyers or firms and fair treatment of Indian lawyers or firms abroad," said Menon, the founding director of the National Law School of India University and the National Judicial Academy.

Observing that the countries, which are signatories to the General Agreement on Trade Services, are progressively liberalising markets in goods and services, Menon said: "The next few years are critical as the ongoing negotiations will progressively become narrower leaving fewer options unless India actively involve itself to structure the terms around the concerns beneficial to the developing countries generally and India in particular."

He appealed to the legal fraternity of the country not to continue to sleep over the matter as it may be left behind in providing legal services to the fast-growing class of legal service-seekers.

"In the process, the country will lose its legitimate share of wealth generated globally through trade in legal services," he said.

He said trade in legal services based on reciprocity principle was now becoming a reality, though in a modest scale, as the Bar Council of India had come up with draft rules for the Registration and Regulation of Foreign Lawyers in India, 2016.