Click here to download a preview
100 Legal Luminaries of India
Editor: Sangeeta Sharma
Publishers: LexisNexis
ISBN: 9789351437574
Year: 2016
Format: Hard Cover
Edition: 1st Edition 2016
Price: INR 4500.00
About The Book:
In most of us, the word ‘law’ brings forth images of people standing on their guard, dictating right and wrong, stiff, perhaps a little harsh. In reality, law is nothing like this. Law is the ability to bring a balance in all things. It is what keeps all of us tied with strings of justice. The lady who holds the scales of justice, weighing the situations till they are balanced, is blindfolded. This is the image that conjures up when it comes to law. It is the ability to weigh facts, pros and cons, in an objective manner.
Laws have been made by humans for humans. They are the rules which govern and influence society and ensure that humans learn to accept the ways of each other in a harmonious way. And we are looking at these balance creators who have changed the society in their own way. They have dedicated their lives for the welfare of the people. There are many heroes in the legal world. We would like you to know about all of them, including those unsung. However, given our constraints, we have been able to cover only 100 legal luminaries.
Initially this project was conceptualized as a book on lawyers for law firms, but it was the brain child of Dr Lalit Bhasin to include eminent senior counsel, in-house counsel and the top law teachers of the country’s law schools. Dr Bhasin’s role as a mentor helped us immensely in completing the book.
This book has tried to capture the person behind the black coat, the person with his strengths, weaknesses, family and friends. These legal luminaries have contributed in every sphere of the society. In their own ways, they continue to bring about a just, peaceful, prosperous, happy and contended society. The 100 great men and women featured in alphabetical sequence in this book have achieved pinnacles of success, not through comfort and shortcuts, but by setting goals and walking an arduous path, whether as eminent lawyers, heads of India’s topmost law firms, in-house counsel or as law teachers.
Laws have been made for a civil, peaceful, happy and contented society. We felicitate these 100 law professionals for helping make the world a peaceful place to live in. We hope you enjoy reading the book as much as we enjoyed making it.
We know and acknowledge that some of the great names have possibly been missed out. The omissions are not wilful, but could have occurred due to time and space constraints. Our research is ongoing and we hope to bring out another edition in the not-too-distant future.
Now Available at INR 4500.00 + Shipping charges
To Order the book, please contact:
Tel: +91 9999625733
or write to
Price-Rs 4500 per book
Book Review By DNA
Mustafa Plumber
Updated: Aug 21, 2016, 08:20 AM IST
Book- 100 Legal Luminaries of India
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.