This interview has been published by Anshi Mudgal and The SuperLawyer Team
What inspired you to pursue a career in law, and how did you begin your journey in this field? What motivated you to establish your own practice in 2016, and what challenges did you face in the initial stages?
Belonging to the family of civil servant, I was influenced by prominent members of legal fraternity who were family acquaintances. When I was around 9-10 years old, my father pursued LLB course from Agra University (though he never practised), which gave me access to judicial precedents that I used to read as bed-time stories. Being academically inclined, I was pursuing the IIT-dream, when I came across Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird, which fructified my decision to pursue law.
My parents readily agreed to allow me to pursue law with the condition that I get admitted to one of the top law schools. I missed NLSUI-Bangalore seat by a whisker. However, I got selected in almost all other top law schools in country, but decided to join ILS Law College-Pune. During my five-years at law school, I worked hard on academics as well as all extra-curricular and sports activities. During college vacations, I did my internships with law firms, senior advocates, and high court judges for my all-round development as a complete lawyer.
With an initial focus on work-discipline, I joined Remfry & Sagar, where I had an illustrious career for nearly five years. My memorable tenure at Remfry & Sagar taught my punctuality and sharpened my comprehension skills, which I feel are the key essentials for every good lawyer. Thereafter, for short periods, I joined few other legal offices, law firms, senior advocates, etc. to learn court-craft and get an exposure on the variety of work on offer in the market, and then, I set up my own chamber practice in the year 2016. With my experience, I advise that in our country, the legal profession is structured in a manner that one gets complete creative and financial freedom for work and growth only in self-owned law-firm/chamber practice. However, being a first-generational lawyer, the biggest initial challenge that I faced was handling clients and sometimes the lack of them. My advice to every aspiring and young lawyer is to not indulge in comparative analysis, and instead focus on enhancing the lawyering skills, and success will follow.
How did your time working with former Solicitor General Mr. Ranjit Kumar and former Additional Solicitor General Mr. Sanjay Jain shape your legal acumen? Can you share some insights from your time working with them?
Both these two gentlemen are God’s men, and my two gurus, and legal legends in the true spirit. They have completely different lawyering kills and court-craft, but humbleness and kindness are common to them. When you spend long hours with someone together, especially your teacher/guru, a special bond develops with them. My life is deeply indebted to both of them in a lot many ways. Having worked elaborately with both of them, I say that Ranjit Kumar sir has an orthodox teacher-pupil like approach, where for gaining true knowledge, one has to first completely surrender and unlearn everything. Whilst Sanjay sir has a rather modernized approach, to teach and learn at the same time.
Can you share some insights and experiences from handling high-profile cases like Lajpat Nagar Bomb Blast case or the 2G scam?
My third guru, Uttam Datt sir has taught me that all cases are equally important. The nature of court forum and the nature/gravity of the case should neither cause anxiety/over-keenness, nor deserve any special attention/concession. I do my best in every case and opportunity that lands at my door step. It is the small steps we take on daily basis that prepares us for the one large big step. Certainly, Rome was not built in a day. In my short career of fifteen years, God has been kind enough to provide me the opportunity to be associated with several high-profile cases defining legal jurisprudence in the country. I am grateful to Sanjay Jain sir for providing me with the opportunity to be involved in several high-profile cases such Lajpat Nagar Bomb Blast, 2G scam, and Antrix-Devas. All high-profile cases come with the baggage of voluminous court records and long-sitting hours. The happiness and satisfaction achieved by success obtained in these high-profile cases has no bounds and cannot be measured.
What are the unique responsibilities and challenges of being an Advocate-on-Record at the Supreme Court of India? Could you describe a typical day in your life as an Advocate-on-Record, and how do you manage the demands of such a prestigious and demanding role?
Being an Advocate-on-Record at Supreme Court of India is a prestigious designation for any lawyer. We must understand that Supreme Court is the final frontier for all litigation disputes, and therefore, the biggest responsibility and challenge faced is to meet the expectation of clients. With the court hearings being conducted via hybrid mode – physically/virtually, and considerable infrastructure development, appearing before the Court has been made easier for the lawyers as well as the litigants. However, for listing of the case, one has to coordinate with the Registry, which since past few months has not been functioning at optimal level. Though the silver lining in the dark clouds is that some changes are lined-up, and we can expect things to improve in near future.
My chamber-practice is very structured and organized. Having an efficient and loyal clerk like Anand-ji helps. We are planned/prepared in all our cases a week before the court-date, courtesy which I am able to appear before two-three different courts in a day. In my initial days of practice, I would be working 15-16 hours a day. However, things have changed post-COVID. Now, as opposed to the general practice of law chambers starting work post 4:00 pm, I start my work day at 7:30 am, and try to finish the major drafting work by 9:30 am. Courts are attended to from 10am to 4:30pm. The time available between court hearings is spent on reading case files, legal research, client meetings, etc. After court hours, 5:00pm to 6:30pm is spent on preparing for the next day or some client meetings. Unless there are some urgent pressing work commitments, I do not attend to any office work after 7:00pm. On a daily basis, 30 minutes is specially dedicated on reading the latest judicial precedents as bed-time reading.
As a legal advisor to media companies and projects like the documentary series “HUNT FOR THE INDIAN MUJAHIDEEN”, how do you balance creative freedom with legal compliance?
Contrary to popular belief, the only role lawyers play in media and corporate houses is to red flag possible legal hurdles and issues, and suggest ways to avoid any hurdles/issues by making changes in the document, script, characterization, dialogues, nature of depiction / representation, drafting / vetting agreements/ NOCs / disclaimers etc. with the objective of retaining the creative freedom for the artists, who are essentially your clients. The final outlook of the visual content created and the market reception of the same is not in domain of the lawyer, whose job is to be handle and avoid all legal objections / possible legal objections from all sections of the society. This is relatively easier for fictional works, but for documentary works a lot of time is spent verifying the sources, whilst the problematic areas from lawyer perspective are inspirational works and biographical works.
Outside of your legal career, what hobbies or interest do you pursue, and how do they help you maintain a work-life balance?
Litigation practice is a full-time job and serious work. I do not get time for pursuing hobbies and interests. I am immensely fond of reading and playing chess, but it has been a decade since I read a novel or played chess at club-level. All my days are structured and planned about a fortnight in advance. Whatever limited time I get from work, I spend with my family and go out for shopping, movies, social gatherings, temple visits, picnics, long-walks, sports, vacations, etc. During winters, I do play sports like badminton, cricket, and hockey at club-level. As a rule, I keep one day a week exclusively for family. I do cook once a week, which calms my mind.
Are there any specific legal reforms or policy changes you are passionate about advocating for, based on your experience in the field?
My litigation practice is diverse to include civil, corporate and criminal matters, both at original and appellate levels. I strongly believe that the drastic changes need to be made in the judicial system to make it speedier. Justice delayed is Justice denied. We need more competent Judges at District Court level. All civil and criminal trials should be done on day-to-day basis. All cases should be processed chronologically. Hefty costs should be imposed for seeking adjournments. There are numerous judgements by Supreme Court and High Courts on this issue, but in ground reality, things still move at snail pace.
What trends do you foresee shaping the future of legal practice in India, and how are you preparing your firm to stay ahead of these trends?
I feel law firm practice will be way forward. However, independent counsels / people with small chamber-practice will never be out of work. The focus is to keep enhancing the lawyering skills on daily basis. People with top skills are never out of work, be it in any field.
As someone with significant experience, how do you approach mentorship and leadership within your firm and broader legal community? What advice would you give to young aspiring lawyers who are just starting their legal careers and looking to make significant impact in the field?
At this stage, mentorship are big shoes for me to fill. In the past, I have visited quite a few colleges to share my experience with the students. I am accessible to all young lawyers for guidance and advise, and many of them do consult me from time to time. My general advice to everyone aspiring to be a litigation lawyer is to keep head down, learn, work, and be patient for at least 8-10 years. As opposed to other professions, the legal profession requires considerable maturity, compassion, and years of skill and learning. I would suggest them to not compete with anyone or to do comparative analysis or to be influenced by social media influencers, and rather they must try to be a person with substance, and an empty noisy vessel.
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