[Exclusive] In Conversation with Raian N. Karanjawala, Managing Partner, Karanjawala & Co.

Mr Karanjawala, many Congratulations on winning the BW Legal World Global Legal Leaders Award for the year 2020. How was your experience interacting with the Jury and of the event? 

I was as delighted as I was honoured (and I am indeed very honoured) to receive the BW Legal World Global Legal Leaders Award for the year 2020. Awards and Recognitions are important because they help you to assess where one stands alongside one’s peers.       

Mr Karanjawala, rewinding time; please allow us a peek into your illustrious journey in law. Where did this journey begin, who were your mentors, and are there any goals that remain to be achieved?

I joined Mr Pravin Parekh’s office in the year 1979 and worked with him till February 1983. There I met my wife Manik, got married in April 1982, and thereafter, in February 1983, we both left to start our own Firm.  

In so far as to who my mentors were, I can best describe the situation by what Fali Nariman had once told me (he was the person who put me in Mr Pravin Parekh’s office) when I was at his house. I had just joined Pravinbhai and I remember he took me aside for a minute and said “listen, now that you have joined Pravinbhai, I just want to tell you one thing. Everybody is too busy, nobody has time to teach you, you have to find ways to make yourself useful”.  This was something that stayed with me and today when I answer the question as to who my mentors were, I cannot really put my finger and say this one person was my mentor.  What I did have were many mentors because when we were in Pravin Parekh’s Firm, we had an extremely busy schedule of work and every second day we were having conferences and appearing along with some of the best legal minds of that time and probably of any time in India. So, on a given day, we would either be having a conference with Mr Fali Nariman or Mr Soli Sorabjee or Mr V.M. Tarkunde (my father-in-law) or Dr Y.S Chitale or Mr Anil Divan or Mr P.R. Mridul or Mr Ashok Desai or, in later years, a young Mr Kapil Sibal.  It was this constant interaction with them that turned out to be the real learning experience, and in a sense, therefore, I think it would be fair to say that all those mentioned above have been along with many others, who I may have omitted to remember, the real mentors, who actually helped us become, what we are.  

In so far as the goals are left to be achieved, they are fundamentally two: (i) is to see that the Firm in the future find itself in an even more secure position than it is today; and (ii) that both my children, along with our other Partners, take the Firm forward.

What would you say has helped you emerge as a leader in your industry and what advice would you have for others who want to set off in a similar direction?  

Frankly, when I look back on my life, I have said it before, and I will say it again. I feel that a large part of my success is because I have that one quality that Napoleon looked for in all his Generals.  Before he made anyone a General, he would ask one last question “Is he lucky?” 

We have seen a spate of legislative changes in recent years that have been monumental in reforming India's legal framework across all sectors. Would you please highlight a recent development concerning your practice area that has positively impacted the industry?

I think the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is an important reform in India’s legal framework and whilst positively impacting the industry, it has also had a very positive impact on our Firm as we, along with Mr Rajiv Luthra’s Firm, successfully appeared for ArcelorMittal in the takeover of Essar Steel which I think till date is the largest big-ticket transaction the IBC has seen and also along with AZB, my Firm appeared for Tata Steel in the Bhushan Steel case, which was the first successfully concluded matter before the IBC.  

How has the legal services industry transformed in the past year? What have been your key learnings from the year past and what are your predictions for the future?

The obvious answer to the above question is that virtual appearances have been the order of the day and the one thing that all of us have learnt is that a lot of time can be saved, and a lot of work can be achieved by virtual interaction.

An experience, case or person that left a lasting impression on you. 

I have been fortunate that the Firm and I have had the ability to experience and appear in thousands of cases with diverse settings, and if I were to pick one case or person that made an impression on me, it would be my client Mahesh Gosavi. He had filed a case against Nilangekar Patil (the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra) alleging that he had interfered in the process of his daughter (Nilangekar’s daughter) getting admission to a medical college. I still remember sitting him in my small office as it then was, Mahesh looking at me across my desk and saying - “You see Sir, if he thinks (talking about Mr Nilangekar Patil) that he is a big man and he can do whatever he wants, and that we are only small middle-class people, and can do nothing, then he is mistaken”.  This to me has been the epitome of the spirit of a small man standing up against the system and even 35 years later I can remember almost like yesterday my conversation with him.  

Any other thoughts, message to our readers. What other than hard work is a mantra to success? 

The one suggestion that I do have for all young lawyers is something that by observing Kapil Sibal, I learnt for myself.  I always wondered what was the cause for Kapil’s almost supernatural rise at such a young age and when I analyse it in my mind, I feel that it was the fact that he always approached the case with a certain optimism.  He did not spend too much time worrying about the weak points of the case, though he did make a note of them.  He always put forward, in conference and in Court, the positive aspects of his case and would push them as hard and as much as he could.  This was an attitude that years later I found my friend Mukul Rohatgi also adopting, and it is this observation of both of them, that has often led me to say in my interviews that a young lawyer should not spend too much of his time in finding the weak points of his case.  He must seek out the strengths of his case, maximize them as much as he can, and put them forward.  It is important to know the weaknesses of your case, but an over-emphasis on the same can be detrimental to the end result.  A positive can-do attitude somehow gives confidence to the client and makes them more attracted to the lawyer at hand.