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What initially inspired you to pursue a career in law, and what factors influenced your decision to enrol at the National Law Institute University in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh?
When I decided to pursue a career in law, my understanding of the legal profession was limited to what happens in courtrooms. The idea of litigation seemed quite appealing to me. While I have since discovered a number of other facets of the legal profession, I remain enamoured with a disputes oriented practice.
The decision to enrol at NLIU Bhopal was quite an easy one. When I was applying to law schools, it was ranked in the top five universities in the country. They also had an excellent faculty and a vast alumni network.
After 3 years of practice, what motivated you to pursue an LL.M. at Columbia Law School? Additionally, could you elaborate on the admission process, particularly for young aspirants in the field of law?
While an undergraduate program provides a broad survey of the various areas of law, a postgraduate degree such as the LLM enables one to dive deeper into specific areas and even undertake a comparative analysis. Practising for a couple of years before applying to universities allowed me the opportunity to narrow down my areas of interest through a process of elimination. I was keen to attend Columbia Law School because of its flexible approach to its curriculum. Students get complete freedom to choose any of the courses offered by the Law School and even other schools at the University. Given my interests in arbitration law, I was also quite keen to take the International Commercial Arbitration course taught by the legendary professor George Bermann.
From what I understand, most law schools look for candidates who have a clear vision of their academic and professional goals and are able to describe exactly how the LLM can help them achieve those goals. It also helps to have a balanced CV that can demonstrate a mix of academic excellence, extra-curricular interests and work experience.
Having worked with a prestigious law firm for three years before pursuing your Masters, how did this experience contribute to your professional development and shape the trajectory of your legal career?
In my opinion, the first few years of practice greatly influence your career trajectory. This is the time when you develop a work ethic which inevitably tends to mirror that of your seniors. I spent three years at Wadhwa Law Chambers in the team led by Mr. Anirudh Wadhwa, who has been a great mentor to me. Working in his team exposed me to a wide range of cases and provided ample opportunities to take independent charge of cases. He also encouraged me to apply for the LLM. It is a testament to our rigorous professional training that all my colleagues from WLC continue to excel in different roles, most of whom have now set up successful independent practices. I still enjoy a great relationship with Mr. Anirudh Wadhwa and we often brief him as counsel in several cases.
In 2021, after gaining vast experience you decided to establish your own practice. What inspired you to take this step, and what were the initial challenges you faced when setting up your own legal practice?
Starting my own practice was always part of the plan, but timing a major decision such as this is quite tricky. Everyone has different ideas about it. I set up C&S Law Chambers with Surbhi Sharma when we felt confident in our ability to effectively advise clients without supervision.
It has been rewarding and challenging in equal measures. On the work front, the challenges were along expected lines. But we were also confronted with unexpected challenges across the other dimensions of running a practice, such as managing client relations, building a team, setting up office infrastructure, hiring staff, etc. We are constantly learning and finding ways to navigate such challenges.
Clearing the Advocate on Record (AOR) examination is a remarkable accomplishment. What aspects of the AOR exam did you find most challenging, and what steps did you take to successfully prepare for this prestigious examination?
The AOR exam is considered challenging for a couple of different reasons. First, you become eligible for it only after 5 years of practice. This means that you are now entering that phase in your career where you are expected to take independent responsibility for the cases you are working on, whether or not you run your own practice. Finding the time to study for the exam becomes the primary challenge. The second challenge is that the exam is a handwritten one. This can seem insignificant but plays a huge role. After spending years mastering typing speed and accuracy, one has to now go back to writing by hand. Even the petitions for the drafting exam have to be written by hand. It took a lot of practice to get used to writing by hand while maintaining speed and legibility. I started preparing for the exam around 2 months in advance and whenever possible, tried to spend a couple of hours studying for the exam in the evening after completing the work for the day.
You have represented parties in both international and domestic arbitration. Could you provide an example of a particularly complex arbitration case under ICC or VIAC rules? What was your role in the process, and what were the key challenges you faced in navigating international arbitration laws?
I can discuss a recent case where we secured a favourable award for an Indian company against a Vietnamese company in a Vietnam seated arbitration. This was a case for recovery of certain unpaid dues arising out of a contract for supply of equipment for a hydropower plant. Since the agreement was governed by Vietnamese law, we had to first engage a Vietnamese firm to represent the client. We also had to spend a fair amount of time trying to understand the structure of Vietnamese commercial law and the remedies available to parties so as to assist the client in taking the right call.
We advised the client to institute arbitration proceedings under the arbitration rules of the Vietnam International Arbitration Centre (VIAC). Interestingly, the VIAC Rules permit the parties to invite witnesses to attend the hearing and even submit fresh documents or evidence during the final hearing. During a marathon final hearing that went on for 11 hours from 7 AM (IST) to 6 PM, the Respondent introduced several fresh factual arguments in an attempt to suggest that the equipment supplied by my client was failed to meet the technical specifications. Rather than seeking time to respond, we took the collective call to address these new submissions in the same hearing. I had to then act as a real-time link between the client’s team in India and the Vietnamese lawyers who were addressing the Tribunal. We were able to work with the client to provide point wise response to all the fresh submissions – all within the 2 hour lunch recess. Thankfully, the Tribunal passed the award in our favour.
Now we are navigating the fresh challenges that arise with enforcement of the award. I think the key take away is that each case comes with its own unique challenges and there are no easy cases. But that is what makes our work so engaging.
You were involved in challenging the constitutionality of the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020. How did you approach preparing for such a challenging case, and what strategies led to a favourable outcome?
It would not be proper to go into the merits of this case since an SLP is still pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. I can only discuss my involvement in the case, which was one of the best learning experiences of my career so far.
We were representing one of the two main petitioners (both associations of industries in different districts of Haryana) who had challenged the Act before the Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court. Working on cases such as this is always a team effort. We must credit the client for taking a bold decision and promptly providing us with the necessary instructions and supporting documents. At the time of drafting the Petition, we had to do a broad review of all the possible arguments and incorporate them as grounds of challenge. Then we worked with our colleagues practising in Chandigarh, who advised us on the applicable procedures and helped us in briefing the senior advocate. Finally, the most important role was that of the senior advocate, Mr. Akshay Bhan. He quickly grasped the case and was excellent in his arguments. He also guided our research in the right direction and we learned a lot working with him.
Given the demanding nature of your practice, how do you manage to maintain a balance between your professional responsibilities and personal life?
I like to limit the number of hours that I work in a given day, since there is a noticeable dip in my productivity beyond that. Of course, there are situations of extreme urgency where we need to file applications seeking interim relief and time is of the essence. But those situations are exceptions rather than the rule.
It also helps that we run a digital office with little to no requirement for any physical documents. There is no need to stay in the office, even where urgent work requires putting in a few extra hours. I can always go home for the day, spend some time with my family, reset mentally and then continue my work from where I left it. I advise our associates to follow a similar approach to the extent possible.
What advice would you offer to law students aspiring to build a successful career in law? Are there any specific resources, tools, or practices you regularly rely on when navigating the complexities of the legal profession?
Anyone who seeks to build a career in law must learn to master time management, particularly in a dynamic field such as litigation. Your plan to work on a given task is always in tension with time spent in courts, the timelines imposed by courts and tribunals in different cases, response time of clients, instructions of senior advocates and the case load of your own team members. You have to constantly reassess what requires your immediate attention and how much time you can afford to spend on a given task. I like to plan all the work that needs to be done for a given month, then split the tasks into different weeks and take a call on a daily basis as to what requires immediate attention on a given day. This allows sufficient flexibility to work on any urgent tasks that may come up while still meeting my weekly goals.
Law school certainly provides a flavour of this time management dilemma through the challenge of juggling your time between course readings and other activities such as competitions, sports, clubs, etc. One can get better at time management by thinking more intentionally about it and testing out different strategies.
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