Bengaluru’s legal blend

← Back to index

India’s technology capital has matured into a complex commercial centre. In tandem, the city’s legal market has evolved into a practice culture that prizes agility, depth and collaboration over scale alone. Katherine Abraham reports

Ambitious to achieve a trillion-dollar digital economy, Namma Bengaluru (Our Bengaluru), as the proud city is affectionately known, has transformed from a serene city of gardens into a world-class technology and innovation hub, creating an urgent need for lawyers who can thrive in this environment.

Bengaluru ranks 14th in the 2025 Global Startup Ecosystem Report of innovation ecosystem development organisation Startup Genome. The report also ranks Bengaluru fifth globally for AI innovation, and the world’s second-largest AI talent hub, with about 600,000 AI and machine learning professionals.

Given this growth, the city’s legal landscape is being increasingly shaped by younger lawyers who blend new ways of thinking with institutional knowledge. This collaboration also redefines the corporate-legal nexus, and helps Bengaluru develop a distinctive legal culture where innovation and adaptability work side by side.

“Bengaluru’s legal ecosystem is younger in demographic terms,” says Aaron Kamath, co-head of the tech, digital and commercial law practices at Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) in the city. “Many first-generation practitioners and firms have built practices alongside growth of the city itself. This has resulted in a market that is relatively less tradition-bound and more open to experimentation in terms of pricing, staffing and the use of technology.”

Vivek Chandy, joint managing partner at JSA in Bengaluru, also says that the growth of global capability centres (GCCs) has been “a significant defining factor”.