An initiative that will make it easier for more of India's one million lawyers to qualify as solicitors will be launched by the Law Society next week - in a bid to persuade the country to open its own legal services market to foreigners.

Training providers CLT and the College of Law will offer the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT) from New Delhi.


The test enables lawyers qualified in a foreign jurisdiction to be admitted to the solicitors' roll. While lawyers are already able to sit the test in Australia and Canada, Indian lawyers wanting to qualify as solicitors have had to travel to the UK to take the test until now.


Alison Hook, head of international at the Law Society, said: 'The real objective is to persuade India that it is a good thing to allow foreign lawyers to practise there. We want to alert the Indian public to the fact that we are very open, and it hasn't done us any harm.'


She added: 'I do not think it will lead to UK firms outsourcing more work to India. A lot of Indians already take the test, by coming over to the UK to do it.'


CLT director Paul Whitehouse said: 'For Indian advocates, getting qualified in the UK gives them opportunities within their own country, and will help them to understand the global market place.


'[However,] I don't expect a mass exodus of advocates packing their bags and coming to work overseas.'