Believe In Yourself But Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously

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LE: You are fortunate to have started your career with Senior Advocate Iqbal Chagla. How was the experience and how has it helped to evolve as a lawyer?

It would not be an exaggeration for me to say that joining a senior like Iqbal Chagla and the years spent with him have been the defining moments of my professional career. He taught and led by example, and that is always the best way to mentor.

He radiates qualities such as a high sense of ethics, the will to do what was right although it might be unpopular, and great dedication to a cause. Couple all of this with a superb legal mind and brilliant advocacy and you have in him a combination that carries all before it. I could not have asked for a better senior. I owe my career to his mentorship. But that was not all. For with Iqbal Chagla also came Chamber No. 1 led by redoubtable Khurshedji Bhabha, one of the great lawyers of the Bombay High Court (and himself senior to Fali Nariman, Soli Sorabjee, Iqbal Chagla, Avinash Rana), and also some very talented young lawyers such as Janak Dwarkadas, Fredun Devitre, Jimmy Avasia, and Erach Kotwal. All this in a chamber that also boasted of future Justice Sam Variava, Justice Rohinton Nariman, Justice Niranjan Vyas, Justice Roshan Dalvi, and many others. It was a fantastic learning ground for things both legal and extra-legal! It was and remains a family.

LE: In your professional career, the time that you spent in the government – both at the Centre and in the state – was one when India witnessed possibly its worst policy paralysis in years. Do you think that phase could be returning, especially with respect to the IBC and its ordinance?