In Conversation With Saurajay Nanda, Founder, Chambers of Saurajay Nanda

Saurajay, would you please walk us through your early years of education and the decision to become a lawyer?

I was born and brought up in Calcutta, and I was fortunate enough to be educated in one of the foremost schools in Calcutta, St James’. The school has a rich heritage of around 160 years with impeccable teachers and principals who left an extremely positive impact on us. 

It had a rare and healthy mix of people from different cultures, religions and economic backgrounds, and this included Anglo-Indians, Parsis, Muslims, Bengalis and Marwaris. Speaking in vernacular was discouraged, but that closed out formation of silos, which in turn allowed us to absorb different qualities  through our interactions.

I was quite an inquisitive, independent and rebellious individual and my friends and I often landed ourselves in trouble. Recently, I reconnected with my class teacher from Class IX, Mrs Indrani Niyogi, and we spoke for hours remembering old times. She is an incredible women, and I cannot thank her enough. There were many others.  

My parents, sister and friends have also had a significant influence. I got first hand exposure to discipline, thirst for knowledge, selflessness and self-sacrifice. Growing up, we avoided taking the easy way out, and we met the consequences of our actions head on and tried to solve them on our own. 

Possibility of pursuing law actually became attractive for a few reasons – (i) logic, reasoning and problem solving came quite easily to me, and (ii) I had a sense of right and wrong, while allowing for a healthy dose of grey in-between.

I did my BA/LLB from WBNUJS, Calcutta.

What does a day in your shoes look like?

This is a tough one, because I have to be quite flexible.

That being said, over the years, I have started to prefer starting quite early, but it is hard to maintain that on a daily basis. I like my black tea and 15 minutes for gathering my thoughts in the morning, followed by 15/20 minutes of stretching and freehand exercise when possible. 

Putting in 2/3 hours before Court begins is important because a lot can be done in that time and I also add and revise my notes for matters I need to argue. Court hours can mean waiting and running from one to other (Delhi HC, NCLT, NCLAT, SC), but I use this time to work and read legal developments across sectors. I can work out of almost any situation with the help of music and my earphones. It cancels out the noise and allows me hear myself think.

Court is followed by conferences and heavy drafting later in the evening. I try to be home by 10 pm, but I do work at home as well. Cold showers in the morning and once home helps me reset. 

On days, I play football at night and cricket over the weekend. Weekends are working as well, but on my timings, unless there are hearings and conferences. 

Can you tell us about one notable case you have been involved in during your career.

It is hard to identify one, and I have handled a number of high-value and complex matters resulting in landmark judgments. However, working on the matter relating to the Indian Premier League media rights when I was associated with Tuli & Co is the first to come to mind. Briefly, put, the dispute was in relation to the Indian Premier League media rights back in 2008. We represented World Sport Group, the only successful bidder for the untested IPL.

BCCI terminated Sony’s license (WSGI had allowed Sony the India rights for first 5 years directly with BCCI) in 2009. Subsequently, BCCI terminated WSGI’s rights as well on the alleged basis of all pervasive fraud. In arbitration, the majority upheld the termination by BCCI, while the third dissented. On challenge, the Bombay HC (extremely pro-arbitration), in 2022, set aside the award. 

What is your success mantra and what advice would you give to others wanting to tread a similar path?

There are several aspects to this. Amongst others, it requires a mix of hard work, fostering an analytic mind, reading and understanding people and the system. 

For people starting off, devoting time and critically analysing judgments, at the back of one’s own analysis, to elicit why some arguments were accepted and others rejected, is irreplaceable. This is one way to foster the growth of an analytical mind developed through questioning and testing. This ‘why’ needs to be taken through to its logical end, and includes testing judgments and views of others irrespective of the age. 

Freethinking is key, and being analytical (could be said as a heightened System 2, coined by psychologist Keith Stanovich & Richard F West, functioning) should be naturally free-flowing across all facets of life.

Personally, being able to break things down, look at all aspects from a macro and micro level, the permutations and combinations et al naturally flows in day to day life. It has evolved through automatic deployment in the profession. However, analytical thinking can be developed and honed at any point in life, but it has to be deployed across the board  for it to truly develop and blossom. 

Creating a solid base is key.