Legal Era Nov 2017 | Page 37

COVER STORY Z ia Mody established the Chambers of Zia Mody in 1984, which then became AZB & Partners in 2004. The firm has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune with an integrated team of approximately 400 legal professionals. One of India’s foremost corporate attorneys, Mody worked as corporate associate at Baker & McKenzie, New York, for five years before moving to India to set up her own practice. Mody passed her law degree from the University of Cambridge in 1978 and was enrolled as an Advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa in 1978. She did her LL.M from Harvard Law School and was then admitted as a member of the New York State Bar by examination in 1980. Mody is an internationally acclaimed lawyer who sits on the Boards of global organizations such as HSBC Asia Pacific, International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and so on. Back home, she has served on committees constituted by bodies such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI and RBI among others. Among the umpteen awards and accolades Mody has received, she won “Professional of the Year, 2017” at the inaugural UK-India Awards and has been listed by Forbes India as one of India’s 10 most powerful women in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Describe your journey as a leading woman lawyer? The journey has been a difficult one but in hindsight, extremely satisfying. It is also important that India could produce women lawyers who have made a mark, although they are unfortunately very few in number. Describe the challenges that you have faced as a leading woman lawyer? The challenge I faced as a young counsel in the Bombay High Court was basically being possibly one of the only women counsels who actually argued. The nervousness with which I prepared had a lot to do with the fact that I was one of these only women whose voice was being heard. Firstly, I did not like to lose. Secondly, I had to be over prepared. And thirdly, I could not handle any on e making fun of me!! Describe the milestone cases/matters that form the silver lining of your career? I would say that the milestone cases in my career were during my earlier years as a junior counsel when I got the opportunity to argue many public interest litigation matters on my own since clients had no money to pay for a senior lawyer. When it comes to corporate M&A, one of the milestone matters for me is the global acquisition by Tata Steel of Nat Steel across several jurisdictions. That was one of India’s first ODIs and also remains with me as a matter I learnt much from. www . legaleraonline . com | L egal E ra | N ovember 2017 37