Reported By:
| Edited By: Mustafa Plumber |Source: DNA |Updated: Dec 05, 2017, 02:02 PM IST
Great men and women featured in this book have achieved pinnacles of success, not through comfort and shortcuts but by setting goals and walking an arduous path," says the introduction to 100 Legal Luminaries of India, laying the ground for what to expect in the pages that follow.
This collection of short, crisp pieces on the who's who among India's black-robed, legal eagles gives an insight into the lives of some of the country's most eminent lawyers, who wear the many hats of politicians, educationists and social activists.
A collector's edition, the book focuses on four main legal categories — senior counsels, legal firms, in-house counsels and law professors. Written in a lucid style, it takes the reader behind the success stories of some of the tallest legal luminaries of our times. It rightly describes these men and women as important in fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of Make in India, many have helped in mergers and acquisitions and collaborations with companies in India and abroad, safeguarding not only the country's interest but also developing trust among foreign investors by providing accurate and timely legal advice. However, while doing so, the book stops short of being critically analytical about either the professionals it speaks of or their organisations.
While featuring some of the sharpest legal minds in the country like Arun Jaitley, Ram Jethmalani, Mukul Rohatgi, Fali S Nariman and Harish Salve, it also doffs its hat to women such such as Indira Jaising, Meenakshi Arora, Nalini Chidambaram and Zia Mody who have contributed to shaping the Indian legal system. They have not only made a mark in a male-dominated profession but also helped to bring several social changes by introducing reforms in laws.
Jaising, for example, has fought landmark cases seeking equal inheritance rights for Syrian Christian women in Kerala. And Arora appeared pro-bono for a women's organisation case in the landmark Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan, which banned sexual harassment in the workplace.
Through the profiles, the collection introduces new entrants in the legal profession to values like discipline, hard work and high standards of ethics – inside the court and outside it too. This should inspire many youngsters who want to become lawyers and also those who have just joined.
Senior counsel Majeed Memon, puts it well, "Zindagi ajm se kayam hai, varna aye majeed maut paspai ki soorat mein kai bar aai (Life is that which keeps testing you, O Majeed. Death, which otherwise keeps lurking, would have killed with each failure)."
The book also looks at the lives of lawyer couples who continue to succeed individually – for instance Maninder and Pratibha Singh and Nalini and P Chidambaram – to highlight how women play multiple roles of homemakers, professionals and support systems to their husbands.
"We appeared in only one case against each other, I lost and I am yet to settle the score," Nalini Chidambaram recounts in the book. Though her husband, finance minister in the former Manmohan Singh-led government, was based out of Delhi, she preferred to stay in Chennai and continue her practice.
Interestingly, as the book tells us stories of these illustrious achievers, it also highlights a trend of dynastic succession with one or more of their children following them in taking up law as a career.
