This interview has been published by Namrata Singh and The SuperLawyer Team
“This is the era of technological dynamism where the web, blockchain and AI are making a lot of changes in the world. The legal field is not an exception to this and a lot of things are happening in both the legal world as well in the legal profession. So, obviously the lawyers who are the forerunners in this profession are adopting this technology induced change and they can only survive by doing that.My advice to the young generation of lawyers would be to adopt this technological change very fast. They should be the fastest runners, otherwise, they will be out of the race. Especially AI is causing a lot of job loss in the legal profession..”
– Ajmal Khan Nadakkal, Partner & Head of Corporate Khalifa Bin Huwaidan Alketbi.
Mr.Ajmal Khan Nadakkal is based in Dubai and he has more than two decades of experience with a wealth of expertise in setting up regulated and non-regulated firms all across Europe, Africa and the Far East, as well as in major cities and states in India. He has a proven track record of handling complex corporate issues, including compliance and anti money laundering policies, taxation matters, and real estate transactions to name a few.
We would like to start our journey of question answers by asking you what inspired you to pursue a career in law, and please share your story of reaching to the top.
I’m a first generation lawyer. There are no other lawyers in my family and my family circle. From my school days, I had a passion to become a lawyer. I don’t know exactly what the reasons are, but there was definitely one teacher who really influenced me and he is the person who persuaded me to become a lawyer. So from those days, I was always thinking about how to become a lawyer. Then after my pre-degree, I tried my law entrance exams and got into a law college. It was definitely not an accident. I should be honest about the fact that I came to this profession by choice.
So when this was an inspired choice and you made it with all the diligence, what prompted your decision to transition from practicing law in India, then to Dubai as well?
After college, I started my career in the local courts- District Court, Manjeri. I practiced for almost six to seven years there, in Manjeri and other Courts and then I got an opportunity to switch to an in-house legal counsel role in Bangalore. In fact, that is the reason I got to a different domain of legal field. When I took up that opportunity, I got a lot of exposure. I traveled a lot across India to handle various complex legal issues for the group, to meet regulatory authorities. Also, I traveled outside India for investment facilitations. regulatory setting ups, then also got the scope of liaison with various international law firms for handling their legal issues. This gave me a really good exposure and then I felt, international legal opportunities are bigger and I should explore more if I can get an opportunity.Luckily again I got an opportunity in the UAE. Then I took up that assignment and came to Dubai. That is how I shifted.
What difference have you seen in the kind of practice we do in India as lawyers and the kind of practice you may have seen in Dubai? And when you compare these two how do you support this transition? Let’s say if someone obviously wants to move, what kind of lookout they should have in making that transition because you have smoothly sailed this.
The Indian legal system is more traditional, which is derived from different customs and different complex laws. It took centuries to evolve that legal system. So it has its plus and minus also. We always carry that baggage of our history, even in the legal system, which causes a lot of, you know, delay in the legal proceedings and complexities. Even though now we are trying to make big changes by technology ventures and all, but still the Indian legal system is too complex and people are facing a lot of difficulties, especially the delay in the litigation, dispute resolution, then red tapism everywhere.
We cannot avoid this and that is the problem.When I switched to UAE, I realised that this system does not carry much history. It is a new law and new entities, a new legal system. It was a Sharia backed legal system, but when the international business opportunities came to UAE, the rulers were really pushing the business opportunities and trying to be the global hub. During this time, they developed the legal system and the laws also to that standard, very fast developing and, technologically advanced and which always cater the needs of the business people. They gave priority to the business people who are going to come to the UAE and invest. So accordingly they made rapid changes and that favours a person who is making strong decisions, as there is nothing to curtail that speed. This is because one person can take the decision here without being impacted by many complexities.
That is the major difference. It’s all new and transparent, moving at a very fast rate, which makes the legal dispute resolution effective. People get a quick solution to their problem when they are approaching the courts and dispute resolution authorities. This helps them to continue with their business further. In our place, sometimes it even takes decades, especially in case of family disputes. So these are major differences I could feel in the two domains. So for somebody who wants to shift from India to Dubai, my advice is that there are a lot of opportunities here, and you can cater to the world and you can feel the international legal complexities here because of the presence of almost all the nationalities, whose disputes range from personal issues to business disputes. Now because of the estate planning and foundation trust systems here,people from different parts of the world are setting up the foundation and trust here taking advantage of the easy environment,giving a lot of opportunities to new lawyers.
The only thing is they have to be very fast in upgrading themselves and follow the new developments in the legal field, especially, with the help of technology. Technological advancement is also very much required, which is something the Indian legal system is still not that advanced for which even the law colleges in India are also lagging behind in this. So these are the things they should always keep in mind when they are planning to switch to Dubai.
You have talked quite a bit about dispute resolution mechanisms as well, and you specialize in managing these disputes, especially related to commodity derivative trading, investments, forex, gold, and bullion trading as well. We would request you to elaborate a little bit about these areas and their significance in the legal field, because it is an absolute niche of the niche field and most of us are eager to understand these fields and try and see the future in it.
I was also very new to this domain when I joined the in-house team in Bangalore, but that group I was associated with was into online trading, forex, commodity derivatives, securities, and that kind of a domain. So, obviously I happened to handle a lot of that kind of complex issues, disputes, crisis management and learned about trading -forex trading ,leverage trading And futures trading. I had to learn all these things. In fact, I would say I started an account and lost some money and learned from that experience too because without practical training this is almost impossible. After a year or two I realised that I was really struggling to cope up with this environment so I decided to start an account in trade because that gave me a lot of insights, how the positions have to be taken, how the leverage trading happens, how the margins are called for. This gave me a lot of input when I switched to Dubai and started my legal career. The legal profession here really helped me because UAE is also a place of online trading, leverage trading and all people sitting here are trading across different platforms across the world and also here.
In India, though there is a clear regulation about online trading licensing and regulation which all has to happen, still people are using shortcut methods and opening up phishing companies to fraud like taking people’s money and then vanishing. Many people lose their money because they don’t know what this regulation is, they are just fantasized with this leverage trading and the opportunity to make big money swiftly.
The marketing people always give them the positive and never the negatives. So they open the account and start trading. Then in the demo, they will show some profits while in real time they will lose. They can’t even pump in for the margin calls, so obviously they will lose the money.
So many such disputes came and which came to me. So as a person who understands this domain, whenever a client comes and discusses this with me, we will get the synergy. And I have managed a lot of such disputes. In many of the issues, I managed to get back their money and in some of the cases, the accused were convicted, definitely in many of the cases, the people who vanished, we cannot do much, but still we can educate the people and also the companies who wanted to regulate and do it in a streamlined way.
They also started approaching us because of their domain knowledge. So this has become a real opportunity for me and also my team members to learn about this leverage trading and domain. Now we have started a division where we are setting up regulated entities in UAE and abroad because of this domain knowledge.
What kind of critical factors do you consider while dealing in corporate structuring and restructuring? Because they are definitely out of reach of most of us. We don’t understand that, or it is not taught in schools or colleges. Now, how do you see that platform can be built in order to make sure that these subjects reach to most of the students so that you also get a little workforce because as I can understand having that kind of the niche, you end up having very limited number of people with that understanding? So how do you see that happening anytime sooner in future?
Corporate structuring is a very important aspect of the business. Especially when somebody is starting a business, they should structure their business in a proper legal manner. What entity they should start, where is the destination they should start the business, what kind of license they should take up, and how the shareholding has to be allotted, and how the control mechanism has to be managed.All these kinds of things are very, very crucial when somebody starts a business. So, since we have a lot of this experience, we are able to advise all the entrepreneurs properly how to structure their business in the initial phase. Here, one thing, in UAE, most of the people who came here in seventies, eighties and nineties. Most of them are not very educated. They came here chasing their dreams. They faced a lot of struggles, hardships in the initial phase. They worked and then they started small businesses with whatever available corporate sector at that time was available, the legal corporate sector, then they started it like a civil company or a sole establishment and so on.
Then their business ventures grew really fast, beyond their imagination. Many of the big businesses here have all started like that and after reaching this stage of growth ,they are apprehensive about the fact that when the next generation is going to be onboarded the legal sector would not be intact and that it should be rectified as well. This is a very critical position because already the business is loaded and there is a lot of exposure . From here if they want to restructure their existing legal corporate system, this needs real advice, a proper advice with experience which only experienced persons can do because they need real time solutions.
It is in this area that we advise a lot of clients now who are passing their business to the next generations -How to structure the holding company, create foundation and trust to manage their will and wish in the subsequent generations and if the next generation is not interested in the business and a working partner is onboarded, how to sector the company in that way.
We also advise on creating an ESOP by stimulating the business through that channel.These are all things in which we really need proper advice and here liesour experience, that we gathered from the last 10 to 14 years of having real time experience in Dubai.
You started as a first generation lawyer, and now you own a company which works for all these corporate structuring, restructuring and licensing agreements. We would request you to elaborate on that as well.
I was part of a local law firm as a partner for the last 10 plus years and then recently, last year, we got a license of a legal consultancy in Abu Dhabi, which is named ABS Partners Legal Consultancy, otherwise the mainland was not allowing legal consultancy licenses. This is a recent development and we are one of the very few lawyers who got this license in our own names. In that we strategize these kinds of activities, especially this corporate structuring, estate planning, regulatory licensing, trademarks and intellectual laws, all these specific areas, especially the central bank licensing, Crypto licensing, VARA and other regulatory ESCA. So those kinds of activities we do in that legal consultancy license, which is based in Abu Dhabi.
Sir, about the ABS partners, which is doing this kind of work and you are one of the very first lawyers you have got in Dubai, the kind of transition you have seen when you were doing it in India as an Indian lawyer and when you are doing it in Dubai, when has it started? Because if I remember correctly, very recently, Dubai introduced its legal system in January this year. So would you care to elaborate on that as well, please?
In the UAE, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the major hubs. Dubai is still very strict on issuing legal consultancy licenses in the mainland to foreign lawyers. They have a regulation, but it is a bit stringent. It is not easy to get a license there, unless we have three international branches and all. But Abu Dhabi relaxed it a bit in the last year. We got a license almost a year back now. It was last year they introduced this and maybe the second or third license is issued in our name and we should have 10 plus years standing in the UAE. Since me and my partners had this eligibility criteria we applied and got it and now we are developing that to a different level, towards a niche area.
I have to cater to the niche area, which is not much explored by the other lawyers and law firms.
So while you are doing all these things, which are very much corporate centric, you must be going through a lot of mediation and conflict resolution techniques also. How do you make sure that you employ effective techniques for these and what kind of further assistance do you provide?
Because in mediation, it’s not only the end of the case, it’s like, it is just a kind of start if there is any conflict over there. So how do you cater to such clients? And there are clients who must be very, very, very big and not that approachable. How do you make sure that everything is done in the best manner possible for them?
Basically, we are business lawyers and we have a very good connection in the business world. So obviously when some issues happen, some disputes happen, they will ask us for solutions. Obviously always the first method is to try and amicably settle the dispute.
While getting into an amicable settlement area, I always try to understand the client psychology. We need to understand the client’s situation as of now. What is his financial capacity or whether he’s really in a bad shape or this dispute is derived from the ego of the business people. This kind of initial knowledge is what we need to gather, only then can we effectively mediate a dispute. When it comes ultimately, what I realized is everybody, if we can convince them properly to avoid a lengthy litigation and a time consuming process, they will always try to find a way for mediation and settlements.
Only in mediation and settlement, we should not have any agenda. We should try to resolve the matter in accordance with the requirements of both the people. So there, our expertise and experience again, we can give different options. If one option is not comfortable for the person, we can give another option.This is all by experience that we can now give different options and scenarios where we can effectively do dispute resolutions. And we have done quite a lot of such dispute resolutions as well.
Can you share any kind of case which can be very educating for learners as well. If at all you can.
Yeah. Recently, one scenario is where a local stake was involved. The locals were very adamant while the other people were the actual investors. But the local was just a sponsor, with some agreed terms. This was a big business house, and this was almost on a deadlock because both were fighting.As it came to me, I tried to understand the actual reason behind this local person’s issues and then I realized that he has a genuine cause for this as whatever the investors agreed with him initially, this was not honored.
Conveniently, the locals were not asking, not demanding, so they were not giving as well. But when they are parting from the partnership, obviously he asked for his latkes to be honoured. Then I convinced the other party, instead of losing the entire business for a small amount, honour the right because all these years, almost 20, 25 years, he did justice. It was in his name, but still he helped the investor in all ways to build the empire. So with this kind of convincing, the dispute was settled very smoothly and they are still good friends now.
I’m just a reason for it as actually there is not much difference between them. This is where sometimes a mediator is required so that the roles can be effectively played by knowing the psychology of the people. That’s it!
Sir, in all this, there is a lot of technology disruption happening even in the legal field worldwide. How do you see it is going to work out for us lawyers on national and international platforms both, as well as what kind of areas do you see are going to come up or are already there, which are bringing a different kind of practice, even in business laws or in business entities?
This is the era of technological dynamism where the web, blockchain and AI are making a lot of changes in the world. The legal field is not an exception to this and a lot of things are happening in both the legal world as well in the legal profession. So, obviously the lawyers who are the forerunners in this profession are adopting this technology induced change and they can only survive by doing that.My advice to the young generation of lawyers would be to adopt this technological change very fast. They should be the fastest runners, otherwise, they will be out of the race. AI is causing a lot of job loss in the legal profession.
But to me, as I have realized, AI is also giving a lot of opportunities to lawyers in terms of precedence search, the formats, many of the things, especially the legal research, everything is made very easy now because of the AI advancement and these kinds of things, the new lawyers should learn. They should be very fast in learning the new technologies, especially the blockchain, the web. Now, it is going to be a different era than the web. So with these technology adoptions they should do and then cope with the new trends in the law and in the technology.
Sir, how have you driven your life with these kinds of philosophies? And would you care to share some of them with us for us to get inspired as well? How have you lived your life and how have you achieved all this in your legal career?
I’m very savvy with technology, but what I do is I employ associates with good knowledge of technology and I learn from them.There is no hesitation in learning from the juniors when it comes to technology because they are my masters and there’s no ego on this. We should learn from the new generation. My son teaches me about new technology. My daughter teaches me about this. This should be our approach when we are not good in something we should learn from who is good in this.
Then about the philosophy of my career, we should be very transparent and we should not compromise our professional ethics. However, rewarding the other opportunity is there. We should not compromise our professional ethics. If we compromise, that will give you some gain, short term gain, but it will never give you a long term mileage.
Your professional advancement is possible only when you build a reputation. That is very crucial, which I always try to stick on
How do you make sure that you have your own time for your mental health, for your personal life and obviously for other activities as well?
Yes, the personal space is for my family and my small entertainments. I always kept that space, from the beginning itself. I like traveling. I like Hindi songs, then family time. I always try to find time for this. Even though my family will always complain but still, I’m always trying to find some time, especially two days in a week. I always try to give my family time.
Sir, thank you so much for such positive thoughts and sharing it with us. And it has been a learning experience that there are certain niche fields which our learners can look up to and can reach out to you as well.
And once again, thank you for agreeing to be on SuperLawyer YouTube channel. And it has been a pleasure, sir. Thank you so much for being here. Absolute pleasure
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