As India contemplates opening up its legal sector to foreign law firms, larger players are scouring the market for local lawyers, apart from mapping talent pools and gauging compensation packages.

On the radar are more than 2,500 lawyers who work in India’s 10 largest law firms. The Economic Times reports that major U.S. and UK law firms like  DLA Piper, Baker & McKenzie, Allen & Overy, Linklaters, Jones Day and Gibson Dunn have reached out to recruiters to get the process started. 

India has committed to liberalising its legal market in a “phased manner” as part of a raft of trade agreements signed by the UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne and India's finance minister Arun Jaitley in January this year.