Franklin has broken new ground in France by establishing an India Desk led by one of the Firm’s partners -- Bradley L. Joslove. This initiative is an offshoot of the Firm’s Outsourcing and New Technologies practices, also led by Brad. Recently, the Firm has brought in an Indian attorney, with on-point experience in Indian laws gained while working in one of India’s largest IT companies and a leading Indian law firm. Franklin is the first and only firm in France to have brought on board an Indian attorney.
The India Desk is able to assist both Indian companies entering the French market and French companies looking to do business in India.
For Indian companies entering the French Market, the India Desk can call on the expertise of more than 50 Franklin attorneys, all able to work effectively in English and who are collectively able to provide a full range of French legal services covering not only outsourcing and new technologies, but also mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, labour law, tax, litigation and administrative law. The India Desk has put together a service to efficiently assist Indian clients with audits of their compliance with French and European laws. Given the importance of understanding the particular needs of Indian clients, the India Desk makes it a point to be the central contact point for all communications between the Firm and its Indian clients.
The India Desk is also able to assist its Indian clients with all of their legal needs throughout Europe. The Firm is accustomed to putting together legal teams from various European countries to provide a single, integrated response to pan-European legal issues faced by our international clients, such as regulatory compliance with data protection laws. Being an independent law firm has certain unique advantages in this regard. When Franklin puts together an international team of lawyers, unlike the large integrated or network firms, we are not obligated to choose particular local offices, but rather have the independence to choose the firms and lawyers in each of the jurisdictions based solely on their ability to carry out the client’s project in the most effective and cost-efficient manner.
For French and European companies looking to enter the Indian market, Franklin’s India Desk is able to act as a first-level contact for all legal queries relating to Indian laws and regulations. The India Desk can guide French/European clients through the myriad laws and regulations that may apply to their operations in India, ranging from entry strategy to company incorporation to labour regulations and intellectual property laws. Depending on the skills and expertise necessary for a particular transaction, the India Desk can call upon the expertise of one or more Indian law firms with which it has built strong, independent relationships.
The uniqueness of the Firm’s India practice is that it brings together all of the elements necessary to provide effective legal assistance for commercial transactions between India and France. Beyond the Firm’s well-established and reputed practices in the areas of outsourcing, new technologies, labour law, companies and commercial law, intellectual property, administrative law and tax law in France, the Firm can exploit the rich and varied international experiences of its attorneys in both common law and civil law systems to overcome cultural differences, language barriers and procedural hurdles that plague so many international deals.
