VMPL
New Delhi [India], October 2: A delegation of the Indian Foreign Qualified Lawyers Association (IFQLA), led by its Founder and Convenor Yash Jangid, Advocate (India) and Barrister (England & Wales), met officials of the U.S. Embassy’s Commercial Section and the USPTO Intellectual Property Attaché Office at the American Centre in New Delhi on Thursday. They discussed professional cooperation on legal issues in India–U.S. trade, technology and professional relations.
The delegation included Naman Khatri, Advocate & Solicitor (England & Wales) and Founding Member of IFQLA, and Oshin Suryavanshi, Advocate (India) and Registered Foreign Lawyer with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (England & Wales). Aditya Gill, a legal intern with IFQLA, also attended.
IFQLA, an association of Indian advocates holding legal qualifications or professional experience abroad, aims to advance and protect India’s commercial and legal interests, and to contribute to the national goal of a developed India by 2047. Jangid said the association can serve as an institutional bridge between the Indian and U.S. legal ecosystems on foreign qualifications, reciprocity, professional mobility and cross-border practice.
IFQLA noted that the number of foreign-qualified Indian lawyers has grown in recent years. It said they are well placed to handle cross-border and transnational issues, and that their expertise should be put to wider use in India’s interest.
The delegation described the TRUST initiative, the India–U.S. AI Opportunity Partnership and India’s joining of the Pax Silica Declaration as welcome steps for India’s technology and economic partnership with the U.S. It said their success will depend on addressing underlying legal frictions between the two systems. Lawyers trained in both jurisdictions, it said, are well placed to help reduce those frictions, and IFQLA can support institutions on both sides in understanding each other’s legal systems.
It pointed to a structural asymmetry. In the U.S., admission to practise is governed state by state, with differing requirements in jurisdictions such as New York and California. India regulates the profession under a national framework. IFQLA proposed roundtables, webinars, working groups and comparative research involving regulators, foreign-qualified lawyers, academics and law firms.
IFQLA said that as India’s economy grows, it will need greater legal sophistication and innovation, and progressively more open and liberal legal policies, subject always to the country’s larger interest. It supports a calibrated, reciprocity-based opening of the Indian legal market, which it said can strengthen the confidence of U.S. businesses investing in India and of Indian businesses investing in the U.S. IFQLA said this should be pursued consciously and gradually, through positive engagement with the Bar Council of India, the Society of Indian Law Firms and other major professional bodies.
On cross-border disputes, IFQLA proposed preparing an India–U.S. enforcement explainer covering the recognition of court judgments, arbitral awards and mediated settlements between the two countries, to give businesses greater clarity and predictability.
On technology, the delegation said frontier AI, including emerging questions around superintelligence, raises legal issues that need cross-border answers, including AI training on copyrighted works, ownership of AI-generated output, liability and cross-border data flows. IFQLA proposed sustained India–U.S. comparative dialogue on these issues, along with patents, trade secrets and technology transfer, to support innovation while protecting India's interests.
According to IFQLA members, the U.S. officials engaged constructively with the proposals. They showed interest in enhancing cooperation on intellectual property and in further joint discussions on advanced AI and superintelligence. They also indicated openness to engaging in knowledge generation and to helping identify appropriate professional bodies in the U.S. for further engagement. A webinar on U.S. qualification pathways and continuing legal education was among the areas identified for further work.
“India’s journey to becoming a developed nation by 2047 will need legal systems as ambitious as its economy,” Jangid said. “Foreign-qualified Indian lawyers understand more than one legal system and can explain each to the other. IFQLA wants to put that expertise to work for India’s commercial and legal interests, opening up thoughtfully, in partnership with India’s institutions and professional bodies, not around them.”
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