Date:08/12/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/12/08/stories/2006120800490901.htm

Back `Great' expectations

With corporate wars on the rise, mediapersons, provided access to legal opinion in support of one party against the other, have noticed an interesting trend. In most cases, the legal opinion is sought from lawyers of eminence, with preference for those holding important posts in the party organ of the ruling dispensation. More important, the letterheads on which the opinion is furnished first mentions the post that the legal luminary holds within the party apparatus, then lists out his qualifications and, finally, that he is practising at the Supreme Court.

When some curious media colleagues tried to probe, corporate sources explained that when the legal opinion is forwarded to the Government, which in most cases has to decide one way or the other, the expectation is that the opinion would assume added weight if it came from somebody close to the power circle. Corporate insiders, however, concede that in more cases than not, the hope that bureaucracy would be swayed by this new form of "name dropping'' does not work out.

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